The Inbetween
by Mensis Eclipse
Summary: On the night of January 16th Donatello is murdered. Told in Don's P.O.V as he watches his brothers deal with his absence and his enemies make plans that could seriously cripple the future. Not a story for atheists.
1. The Beginning of the End

**AUTHORS NOTE-** Hey everyone! This is my first story in the TMNT fan-fiction catagory. Hope that doesn't discourage you from reading. So I hope this is a new look on an overused plot. Maybe stuff like this has been written before, but hopefully not quite the same. I try really hard to keep all the characters in character and to make an interesting plot line. If theres anything I can improve on, or spelling mistakes (I make those a lot XD) telling me in a review will be really helpful. For example if I spelled the turtles last name wrong please give me the correct spelling in a review. Flamers are not banned, if they have to take out somethings on my story that's fine with me. I make no promises on quick updates, and I really hope I can finish this. Now the plot and some lines are heavily influenced on the book/movie the Lovely Bones. If you've seen it you'd probably recognize the references. All credit of course goes to the respected author Alice Sebold. I just loved the story so much I wanted to try to TMNTize it! I hope I'm not making a fool of myself! The beginning chapters may get a little confusing, so I will very happily answer any questions. Wow this note is long! You must be bored to tears okay on with the story! But first the disclaimer.

**DISCLAIMER- **All characters and plots go to their respected owners, I have no interest in high jacking them!

* * *

My name is Hamato, Donatello. I was 19 when I was murdered, January 16,2008.

The afternoon of my death was an innocent one. It was a day nobody expected to be my last. But of course those are the days you should expect most. Its been years since then, my last day on Earth but I can still hear the sounds of an early morning at the lair, my home. A pair of twin katans being whirled around and stealthy practiced in a way only my brother knew. Raph was over at his punching bag, passionately practicing his hand to hand combat moves. And my littlest brother Mikey was obsessively entertaining himself with whatever poor video-game would next be short circuited by excessive overuse. Normal.

It was something I used for granted of. We all do. And we don't know that we do until its gone, it's often then we realize how unbelievably perfect and irreplaceable it was. After I was dead did I realize what wonderful gifts I had on Earth but overlooked. Ranging from my family to my physical heath and my very sharp five senses. Even the breathe I used to take was a generous gift, but I didn't think so at the time.

What occupied my time on Earth was my passion for science. Or not so much that but figuring out problems and finding as much as I possibly could about the world. Everyone who had ever met me, even myself predicted that it was that same passion that would get me killed one day. As it turned out they were right.

On the night of January 16 2008, or as I liked to call it Thursday, I was making repairs in the garage on the old pickup truck in which I was passionately devoted. I needed some spare parts and made a plan to a trip to the dump to retrieve them.

I went into the lair to put on an old trench coat and hat. My master was in his room casually sipping his herbal tea.

"Going out." I announced. Master Splinter nodded and Leo looked up from his training.

"Where?" he inquired

"To the dump; I need some parts from the Turtle Taxi."

"How long will you be gone?"

"About an hour, maybe less depending on much junk is there today."

"Be careful." he said and returned back to his training.

Had I only known this was the last time I'd ever speak to my brother, I would of made the conversation more meaningful. Or at least I would have told him how much I loved him as best I could in words. But of course if I knew then what I knew now, I never would have put one foot out of the lair. It's funny how the simplest choices can turn out to be life threatening decisions.

* * *

My good friend the professor, as I liked to call him was deep asleep when I arrived. He had a bad cold and I didn't want to wake him. I just decided to scavenge alone.

I wasn't even there for twenty minutes when I saw the newest model of a trunk's engine in the middle of a pile of junk. I was very excited since it was a very easy fix from the looks for it. I was just going to reach for it and pull it out, when I felt someone else coming behind me. It was our 6th sense according to Leo, one that's saved our shells many times. I usually felt it whenever Foot Ninja were around.

I quickly forgot the engine and whirled around to com face to face with not the Foot, but someone way worse. The Shredder. I was shocked for two reasons, the first one being that the last time I saw Shredder he was banished to some stray asteroid deep in space, the second was his face. It was no longer cover by his mask and his utorm form was proudly braving the suit. His utorm form was older looking and had many scars and bruises on its face.

I had only seen the Shredder like this once before, when Draco had transported me to an alternative future 30 years from now. He had taken over the entire world and was working on the universe. I had manged to stop him but at the cost of my future brother's lives.

I took one step closer to the pile of junk.

"No,no," I started "That's impossible! I-I destroyed you!" I was in typical denial. The Shredder started to walk towards me without a sound. I slowly took out my bo when he suddenly lunged towards me. I quickly took a defensive stance when he disappeared in a cloud of black smoke.

I could feel my heart beating madly inside my chest as I quickly looked all around for him. Then I felt a kick on my shell and I fell to the floor. I quickly scrambled up and searched for him again only to have the same thing happen. This time he used his blade to scratch my entire chest and rip off my trench coat. I yelped in pain and got off the floor. I was nervous but not terrified, I knew how to fight phantoms.

The next time he tried to grab my shoulder I quickly grabbed his hand and flipped him before he could go intangible again. He landed on the floor and the next second I brought my bo on his chest and managed to get a couple hits before he turned intangible once again. I must have upset him because the next seconds were nothing but a flurry of kicks, punches and dangerous sweeps of his blades.

I swung my bo blindly and tried to block anything but failed miserably. The next instant he pushed against the pile of junk and gripped his metal hand around my neck. He raised his blade above my head.

This was usually the part when my brothers burst into the scene and gave the Shredder a butt whooping for even thinking he could hurt me. I've been in these situations more times then I could count. I was usually the one the three of them worked together to protect. And they usually did a good job of it. Not this time.

The Shredder brought down his blades and I quickly caught them inches from my face. We stared at each other with cold glares but I was quickly being overwhelmed by his strength. And his grip cut off all my air so my face was turning blue. At the corner of my eye I saw the truck engine hanging at a dangerous angle toward the Shredder's head.

I kicked the bottom item of the pile and the engine plus other metal parts came tumbling down landing directly on top of the shredder. As soon as he released his hold of me I fell to the floor gasping for air. I only had a couple of seconds before the new pile of junk started moving.

I quickly stood up and started a sprint to the city. I knew I couldn't handle him by myself and I certainly couldn't lead him to the sewer. I had just got out my shell cell to call for help, when a shuriken came flying through the air and knocked the cell right out of my hand leaving a pretty deep cut on it.

I slowed my pace to grip my hand in pain. I dared a look back to see the Shredder _flying _towards me. I forgot my hand and started sprinting again. I still couldn't fight him so I decided to take the entrance in the Hudson river to the sewers. I'd lose him in the water... hopefully he couldn't swim.

He started throwing several shuriken at me. Most hit my shell but a good number of them got into the backs of my legs and arms. I dared a look back to see where he was getting all these weapons when it turned out he was making them out of thin air. This slowed me but I had so much adrenaline running through me that I manged to keep sprinting, despite the several knives in my skin.

I rounded the corner and entered the docks. The river was only 20 feet away. I was about to make a dive into the life giving water when all the boats around the docks burst into flames creating a wall of fire. I barely managed to stop myself from colliding with the flames. I whirled around and faced Shredder who now slowed to a walk and was throwing shurikens to my face.

I got out my bo and managed to block some. He simply looked at it and it caught on fire. I jumped and dropped it to the floor where it burned itself to ashes.

The Shredder smiled, it was just me and him enclosed together by walls of flames. Is this what he had planned? To be alone with me defenseless while he had an unlimited source of weapons.

Believe it or not Master Splinter trained us for scenarios like this. He said if you ever find yourself trapped with bad choices go with the best one you've got. I considered my choices, either be trapped with Shredder, or run though the fire and make a break for the sewers.

The Shredder's eyes pierced through mine reading my plans. Then I turned around covered my face with my arms and ran through the flames. I remember the intense feeling of heat, followed by a sharp piercing at the back of head and then a sensation of lightness I'd never felt before. What I never felt was the water.

* * *

At the time I didn't notice. I didn't care. All that was on my mind was reaching the sewers. So I continued even though I couldn't remember swimming I flew through the waters, past the gates that separate the sewers from the river, and soared through the familiar maze of the sewers.

When I reached the entrance of my lair then did I realize something was very wrong. I saw my family but they did not see me. I heard them but could not be heard. I felt myself fading, not from consciousness but from the Earth. Right then I was more afraid then I had ever been in my entire life.

I remembered what our father used to tell us. "Whenever your hurt or in trouble call me my sons, and I will be there to protect you, no matter what."

"MASTER SPLINTER!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. But nobody heard me.

And then I was gone.

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTE- **Hope that wasn't to much of a waste of your time. Cliffhangers are one thing you can expect from me... sorry! So if you liked it or hated it I'd love to hear it in a review!


	2. A Cell without a Key

**AUTHOR'S NOTE- **Chapter 2 is here! Hope I didn't take too long! lol Thanks to all you readers who've reviewed and all you betas that helped my spelling and etc. I really hope in this chapter I caught Don's true character, but most of it is guess work to be honest. I hope in future chapters it does get better. Okay well I have some bad news, I'm heading off to Virgina tomorrow and depending on whether or not there's internet connection, the chapters may not be updated till next week. Let's just say this, if I update Monday or Tuesday I have internet, if not... Sorry

**DISCLAIMER- **I do not own TMNT or anything associated to it, Nickelodeon does...lets see how that works out.

* * *

I thought all of it was just a dream. A nightmare really. I thought when I next opened my eyes I would be safe in my bed panting madly. Then I would calm myself down, climb out of bed and just go into the family room and help myself to one of Mikey's scrambled eggs. I would listen to Leo and Raph have a small argument and Splinter happily chewing on some rice. Mikey would be cracking jokes and everything would be normal. That's what I wanted, that's what I expected.

Instead I woke up to darkness. I woke up to nothing. I thought I was still out cold. In previous times when I was out everything was blurry and came in flashes of shapes and had blurry edges. Sometimes I would feel as if I was looking at the world through a kaleidoscope and everything would sound as if it were being said underwater. But this was different, there were no colors, or sounds just nothing. I looked down at my hands, but only saw blackness.

I panicked, where was I? How did I get here? What happened? Wheres my family? My thoughts raged.

"No need to worry about them any more Donatello." A deep voice pierced through the darkness.

"Who are you?" I asked nervously, then courageously "Where's my family?"

The voice said nothing. I repeated the question, fiercer this time. "Where are they!"

A figure appeared from the darkness. It took me awhile to realize that it was the Shredder. I was scared but I could not feel my heart. I couldn't hear my own voice.

"You are never going to see them again." he said, not as a threat as a fact.

"What have you done to them!" I screamed out of fear and fright.

The Shredder remained still, not intimidated in the least. I took a couple of seconds of realization.

"You killed them didn't you." I said, more to myself then him. My stomach twisted at the phase.

"No" he said simply I looked at him, detailed this time. He hardly had any shape. His smoke was slightly lighter then the impending darkness around him. His red eyes illuminated the space. Everything stopped. I would have fainted had I been...

"You-you killed me didn't you?" I asked in a terrified whisper.

"Your only half right." he scowled.

I stared at him. "I have destroyed your physical form and captured your spiritual one."

I tried talking again but my voice was useless. "When you control enough dark energy you can do anything," he said simply.

"When any being's physical form is no longer able to hold their spiritual one, then their spirit goes to either Heaven or Hell, in your case I created an in between"

"Why-why?" I dared to ask.

"To keep an eye on you. And so that there's no possible spiritual contact between you and your family, so they can't help you."

"You don't know my family! They'll find a way!" I said finding my courage.

"Not possible."

"That's never stopped them." I retorted, but I was getting more and more frightened by the second.

"And if they can't find me I'll find a way out myself!" I added which was a lie to him and myself, no one believed me.

"Insolent fool!" the Shredder shouted "There is NO way out!" he screamed.

Suddenly puffs of gray smoke appeared all around me and as soon as they vanished, rusty bars were in it's place. The surrounding darkness and silence was replaced by intense by suffering mourns all around me and what looked like floating tissue in the water was the new sight. Ghosts. There was evil laughing in the background followed by cries of pain. Babies whined like sirens and their mothers wails pierced through the suffering.

I ran to the bars and gripped them tightly. I pulled and pulled, but it was no use. I stuck my face in between them best I could and screamed. Though the scream was drowned by the other cries and wails of pain.

"Don't you see turtle? You are trapped in a cell which has no key! In an endless world of suffering."

None of it seemed real, but it was. This must have been where nightmares came from.

* * *

After what seemed like years of screaming and fighting I had finally given up and slumped to the floor. I buried my face in my arms and tried to block out the sounds of pain. It was impossible. The Shredder had left as silently as he had come. In a way I was almost sad, without him I was more alone then I had ever been in my entire life. None of the passing spirits noticed me. It was almost like a pair of white water falls. Except one went up, the other down. No spirit stayed in the middle for more then a few seconds.

But I didn't think about that. All I could think about was my family. How would they react to my disappearance? Would they figure out I was dead? Would they forget about me when they do?

"Don's been out for awhile now." A voice. Its sounded like an angels voice. I turned around and came face to face with the lair, my old home. I screamed but no one even flinched. I felt as though I was at the movies. My family's conversation was a scene playing in front of me and I was the only audience member. It took me awhile but I finally got used to that.

My entire family was in the main room, surrounding Leo.

"Uww you worry to much, he probably got carried away and lost track of time." Mikey said, his eyes were still glued to the screen.

"Yea but for three hours? That's not like him." Leo continued.

"You know the brainiac he probably got off talkin to the professor bout space or whatever." Raph said also concentrating on his punching bag.

Leo turned to Master Splinter. "Master?" he asked.

With one eye open Master Splinter responded "I too think that there is nothing grave to worry about, but if you are concerned Leonardo you should try to make contact through his shell cell."

Leo nodded and started to call me. He frowned when the number he had dialed was not in working order. Raph saw his face.

"No answer?" he inquired.

"It's not working all together." Leo responded.

Mikey put down his game controller. "So what now?" he asked.

"Let's go to the dump and look for him, he could probably use some help carrying back some parts anyway." Leo suggested. Mikey and Raph nodded and they all head towards the exit.

"Be careful." Master Splinter called after them.

My heart ripped, how would they react when they couldn't find me at the dump? And even though I knew they'd never find me I couldn't stop hoping that they would bring me home that night and help me with supplies.

* * *

When my brothers arrived at the dump they immediately located the professor.

"No I haven't seen Donatello today, I have been in a deep asleep thanks to a nasty cold." he explained.

My brothers exchange worried glances and spent the next few hours searching every square inch of the dump looking for any sign of me. It was dawn when they regrouped.

"Any luck?" Leo asked.

"Nope." Raph and Mikey answered in unison.

"I say we aren't lookin hard enough. I mean its not like he could just disappear!" Raph growled.

"Not disappear, but we may be looking in the wrong place. Raph call April and Casey, ask them if they had seen Don and if they could help look for him." Leo ordered, Raph nodded and left.

Mikey slowly approached Leo.

"Where could he be Leo?" he asked his voice soft and scared.

"I don't know, but we're going to find out, even if we have to turn this entire city upside down looking for him." Leo said reassuringly. He was amazing that way; Mikey calmed down instantly.

But even Leo's calm approach couldn't lead then to me. I had all the confidence in the world in my family but I wasn't stupid. I knew it would take a miracle for us to be reunited.

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTE- **Now we're getting somewhere! Still might have been spelling/ grammatical errors ehh.. so report them to me and I'll fix them as soon as I can. And hey if you have the time.. review pleaseeee


	3. Nothing

**AUTHOR'S NOTE- **Man I must love you guys a lot! It's currently midnight and my brother is playing Family guy and George Lopez and icecream is waiting for me but I can't eat it till I'm done! Do you know how hard it was to write this! Sorry, deep breath. I apologize for all spelling errors, but it s midnight and I'm tired. In other news I have internet yah! But for the weekend I defiantly will not. Booh. But this is the longest chap so far so I hope it makes up for it.

**DISCLAIMER- **To put it simply I do not own TMNT.

* * *

Panic, it was not a state my brothers reached often. It was not a state they were in when they scaled the rooftops looking for me. Every time one of them turned a corner they expected me to be there on the ledge , grinning sheepishly and explaining how I had lost track of time. They scaled many rooftops, they turned many corners but there was still no sign of me.

Leo let out a frustrated grunt as he jumped the banks rooftop for the fifth time. _Donnie left yesterday at 6pm, _he thought, _It's now eleven pm he' been gone over 24 hours._ Something was defiantly not right. None of us would ever stay out that long without a single call. Kidnapping was a possibility but where was the note? Usually if one of us was captured there would be some kind of threat notice or maybe one of the victims items, but this time there was nothing.

Leo really wished that I wasn't the one captured. If I was there I'd probably see something the others missed. I'd find a clue using some amazing technology. Or I'd go through a process he never understood and scope put an invisible sign of the enemy.

The more he thought about it the more he really considered the fact that their entire family was lost without me. And how I'd better be in some tiny mess instead of a life threatening situation. He didn't know what the family would do without me. I fixed them their weapons, thought on my feet in dangerous times and sometimes even helped heal some minor wounds. Who would take my place if I was gone?

_You'd better figure that out soon Leo, _I remembered thinking, _because your family's life depends on it._

Leo, Raph and Mikey returned to the lair 2 hours later, all with nothing. Now Raph was starting to get worried.

"No blood, no weapons, no note no nothing. Whats goin on here? Are we missing some obvious clue or somethin?" Raph asked no one.

"Donnie would never miss a clue..." Mikey said softly.

"That's the problem shell for brains, Donnie usually figure this stuff out and without 'im we're clueless." Raph snapped.

"Will both of you calm down?" Leo demanded "Now we know Don would never be out this long without calling us if he had a choice, so he's probably being held against his will."

"Yea but by who? If the dragons snatched 'im up then the entire junkyard who be destroyed thanks to their fight. This time it looked completely normal, not even Bishops goons are that clean." Raph reasoned.

"That does bother me Raph, but what other lead do we have? We'd better check the purple dragon's headquarters first just to be safe."Leo ordered.

Everyone else nodded in agreement.

* * *

From my cell I had seen Master Splinter wondering all through the Earth. Not physically of course but spiritually. He was in a deep meditation state, the one he normally went into when one of us went missing this long. If we were in New York City he'd pin point us in a couple of seconds. However it had been 12 hours for him and hadn't found anything.

Slowly Master Splinter was entering in a state of panic. He had already searched the entire continent of North America without luck. And if he did, knowing them, they'd probably get on a plane and search the entire continent of Eurasia.

They had this incredible protectiveness for one another. This love that really defines the strength of a family. But Master Splinter had always feared that this same bond in which was our greatest strength could turn against us into our greatest weakness. What if something really bad had happened to me? What would happen to the Hamoto family?

I watched Master Splinter pass the bars of my cell over and over again. When he had first done this of course I had run to the bars and screamed at the top of my lungs. When that didn't work I pounded against them. I even tried to meditate and slowed my heart rate down (metaphorically of course) to about five bets per minute. Nothing. I had finally given up and jus watched him wander around and around.

The Shredder was right, there was absolutely no contact where he had trapped me. I was a ghost to the ghosts. I was nothing.

Meditation was probably the only thing that kept me from going completely mad. I found out it was really the only was to escape my cell, for a few minutes anyway. I also found out that it was the only way I could enter the minds of my brothers.

Now I know that sounded completely insane. But if I was to explain my life story to anyone I would sound like a complete lunatic. I guess I am, I mean looking at bit scientifically nearly every event that has ever happened to me was an impossibility. That's the problem with science, they base their facts on observation when the truth is _nothing _can be determined for certain by just mere observation. You've got to feel it, connect with it. Everything has a spiritual form, and everything is connected. I suppose I may be a little mad to think that, or maybe it's the other way around. Maybe the people who think by only observation are the crazy ones. Maybe their mad because they can't see whats right in front of them.

If that's true then I regrettably admit for the better part of my life I was insane.

The insides of my brother's minds were all unique and totally unexpected. When I was inside them getting to know my real brothers, I regretted not really knowing them on Earth.

When I had entered Leo's mind specifically his happy place I had expected to find some Japanese garden or training dojo or something. Instead I found the rooftops of New York City. Leo, Raph, Mikey and I were running around howling in the night on what was suppost to be a stealth training run.

As usual when I shouted no one could hear me. So I reverted to watching. Whenever I visited that place we were always playing either hide and seek or tag. Occasionally it was a pizza run (I imagined that Leo usually thought of that whenever he was hungry).

I had no idea Leo liked these nights so much, in fact I thought he thought of them as a waste of time. It just gos to show how much I knew my brothers.

At the center of the his mind was where Leo stored his feelings, dreams, and fears. In the city this resembled April's shop. Sometimes Leo would ditch his mentally created brothers and go in there.

Unfortunately I couldn't follow. There were very heavy chains on all the entrances of the shop. All of them were connected to a single lock. And no matter how hard I pulled it wouldn't budge. _A lock without a key._

Mikey's happy place was a little more expected. In his mind, his mental fragmentation of our family were all superheros with amazing power_s. _Leo could control gravity, I could control electricity, and Raph had super strength. I liked to think that Mikey would rather be off 'superheroing' with us rather then the Justice force.

In his city it resembled New York as if it were a comic book. But my favorite part of the whole place was that we were appreciated and practically worshiped for all the good we had done. We were hero's. And the funny thing was that Mikey didn't have any super powers. Whenever Leo, Raph and I fought evil he often watched and cheered for us. We would never let any harm come to him, we were also very kind and yet all of us threw pies in each others faces every other hour_._

Mikey will be Mikey (we usually pulled those pies out of thin air). In the center of Mikey's mind was the main entrance of the sewer. Unfortunately an enormous statue of Raph. Leo and I covered it up. I tried to move it but it was the heaviest thing I'd ever seen.

Even in Master Splinter's happy place their was a wall covering his mind. Or rather a cage. He was also training with Master Yoshi and Then Shen was always nearby. Master Yoshi put Splinter in his cage every night, but could never fit his own hand in their. I couldn't fit either.

When I entered Raph's mind I was fully expecting there to be a huge gate covering his center. His happy place was what I left that evening the day I died. Everyone was contently doing their daily routine. The center of his ind was in his room and to my surprise, his door was wide open.

* * *

The next night Leo, Raph, Mikey and Casey cautiously approached the purple dragon's old warehouse. It was unusually quiet. Leo warned them to be extra alert.

When they sneaked inside they found a completely empty warehouse, no dragons, no weapons, no clues nothing.

"It's Saturday night" Raph growled "this is where they usually are, it's not like any of em got dates or anything."

Everyone turned to Casey.

"What? How am I suppost to know anythin?" he complained

Raph was about to sarcastically retort when they har a nearby barrel being knocked down, followed by a pain induced curse.

"Bingo." Raph smirked pulling out his sais.

"Raph wait!" Leo tried to warn him but he ws already cornering the guy.

On the dark side of the wall sounds from a quick fight emerged followed by pained whimpers. One large bang was all it took for Leo and the others to come running after Raph.

Raph was holding a gawky teenage to the wall with a sai inches from his neck.

"What did you do with my brother? Talk now!" he threatening closing in the distance of the sai and skin.

"Yo dude I don't know nothing" the teen said fearfully.

"Or really cuz my good friend here says ya do!" Raph snapped referring to his sai.

"Raph! Quit it!" Leo ordered from behind glaring at him.

Raph shut up but did not let go. Leo approached the terrified teen.

"Where are the rest of the purple dragons?" he asked coldly

"I dunno know, probably at our new digs." the teen replied.

"And that would be?"

"Yo dude I'm not allowed to tell."

"Yer in no position to be stubborn kid." Raph threatened, the sai now touched the teen's throat.

"Ok! Ok!" he yelled "Just don't hurt me! We moved to a run down cruise's ship. Tonight we were post to be headin out to the other side of Hudson river."

Thunder roared from above, clouds clouded the night.

"Tonight?" Leo asked.

The kid simply shrugged. Raph knocked him out and dropped him.

"We can probably still catch them on the river." Leo announced.

"Yea but how are w going to get there?" Mikey asked.

"We've still got that helicopter from Stockman, April can probably give us a lift." Leo answered.

Casey nodded and got out his cell.

* * *

Not even an hour later April, and the rest of them were hoovering over the river. There was a mad storm above them, making the waves crazy and also making it very hard to see anything in the river.

Nonetheless they spent the net three hours looking for me, but the storm only go worse.

"We have to go back!" April shouted over the winds of the storm. "The copter can't take much more of this!"

Very reluctantly the others agreed and April started to turn the helicopter around. Leo continued to stare hard at the river.

_Where are you Don? _he thought to me_. _How I wish I could have answered.

All of a sudden he got this feeling, a sensation more powerful the ever before in his entire life. He felt an incredibly strong spiritual form emitting from the ocean. It was familar, one he had been around his entire life but lost it, me.

When he saw a flash of purple in the water, that was all it took. Even if it was just a speck I was down there he knew it. He'd never been so sure of anything else before in his entire life. But if I was down there then I was drowning. He had no time to waste.

Without thinking he opened the doors of the helicopter. And even though it was the middle of January, there was a storm raging, and it was about a 100ft drop, my fearless brother lunged into the storm.

"LEO!" Raph and Mikey shouted.

Leo did not hear them, it took only a few seconds until the hysterical noise of the storm was replaced by the stillness of the water. Leo opened his eyes, they burned and everyhing was blurry, he continued anyway.

A couple of seconds later he broke toward the surface just in time to steal a breath before he was engulfed by a wave. Underwater he searched madly for me. Somehow he knew in his heart that if he didn't find me right here, right now he would lose me forever.

He broke to the surface, but this time instead of taking a breath he raged at the top of his lungs "DONNIE!"

He went under again and when he returned he screamed my name again. His voice was so strong it rattled my bars in the in between.

The powerful current soon made his leg feel like they were about to fall off. He swallowed so much water it was starting to fill his lungs. Getting a breath was harder and harder.

"Bring the helicopter down! Now!" Raph demanded.

"Raph I can't it could fall in the river drowning us all." April explained.

"I don't care! I already gotta brother missin and I don't need another one! Bring it down!"

"Don't yell at her!" Casey defended April.

"Guys we're not helping anyone by yelling at one another!" Mikey screamed "April bring the copter as close to the water as you can."

April nodded, Raph and Casey refused to look at one another.

As son as they were a couple of feet from the water Raph and Mikey searched frantically for our brother. Finally Raph saw a green head poke out of the water and go under again.

"There!" he yelled and prepared a ladder.

Leo fought for another breath. The water was so strong and he was so blind that he had no idea which way as up anymore. Whenever he won a breath it was short and he usually ended up coughing more water. Every small breath he took he thought it could be his last. Blackness was beginning to settle on him.

_I'm sorry Don_, he thought as he began to sink. He was about to black out entirely when he felt a strong hand find a good grip on the back of his shell. He started to get pulled up. Everything was blurs to him, the shouting the waves. All he could think of was me, sinking to the bottom of the lake and laying on the sand, motionless.

He knew I was down there, he was only half right.

When Leo next regained his senses he was in the helicopter heading back to the city. He had a blanket over him which Mikey was rubbing against his skin.

"WHAT WERE YOU THINKIN! YOU SCARED ME OUTTA MY SHELL! A JUMP LIKE THAT COULDA KILLED YOU!" Raph was yelling.

Leo hardly heard him. "I saw Don" he whispered.

Mikey stopped rubbing and Raph shut up.

"He was down in the river, but I found nothing." he continued softly.

Nothing, that was all they'd ever find, I hate that word.

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTE- **I sure hope that chapter was good enough to last you awhile. As always constructive criticism on format and grammar is always appreciated. And I hope this was good enough to earn your review. Night y'all!


	4. Mistakes from the Past

**AUTHOR'S NOTE- **This is the part of the fan fiction that you skip,unless of course you want to know about a contestant or where I've been. So scroll down I'll wait... well for those of you still here, I went to New York City, and no I didn't look in the sewers for four teenage mutant ninja turtles, when I asked if we could tour the sewers a got weird looks. JK! But I did see one manhole! Sorry I couldn't update. Didn't have anytime. Anyway I made another reference to a piece of all ready written fiction in this chapter. I'll give them credit next chapter but I want to see if anyone can guess it. So leave your guess in a review and I'll mention your pen name next chapter. Not much of a prize I know but it's all I can give, here's a hint it's based on a song. BTW italics is a flashback

**DISCLAIMER- **I own nothing hahahahah! NOTHING!

* * *

My brothers were not the only mortals I watched from the in between. I had to stop watching them at one point. Their search, their continuous failures, their growing frustration and fear it was all making me sick.

So I watched others I knew from Earth. Sometimes I even watched allies from other planets. Like Professor Honeycutt. He hadn't yet heard the news of my disappearance at the time and was content in spending most of his time on peace encouraging experiments. Sometimes he spent late nights in his lab alone reading. At those times I would silently read over his shoulder. And when he was studying a new mineral I would pretend I was their with him. Those times were my favorite.

I hated to watch people who knew about my absence. They were in this stage of mourning for _me _that I wasn't comfortable watching. Aprils a lovely example. At midnight when she couldn't sleep, she'd get out f bed and with tears in her eyes go over the notes we used to take. She would sometimes take them outside and ask the wind "Where are you Donnie your brothers are lost without."

I hated it when people did that. Didn't they know that if there was even a sliver of a chance I could go be with them I would? Didn't they know that I would do anything just to see hem alive again? Didn't they know that I sooner suffer a slow painful death, lose all my dignity and honor as a ninja before I'd even consider of bringing any harm to anyone of them?

Whenever she did that I turned to watch someone I didn't know or rather someone who didn't know me. When I was alive I used to go watch a mother and boy live in an apartment. I did this a couple of years ago when the boy was about 12. I loved watching them, especially the mother. I loved the way she looked out for him and protected him. Strength wasn't the only thing that mattered to her. She had this neutering spirit to him, that Master Splinter never showed to any of us. I'm not sure how to explain what kindness she displayed that Master Splinter never showed. Not to say that Master was a bad parent or anything, he was by far the best father in the known cosmos, but he didn't have that love. Like when my brothers and I had nightmares he would tell us to face our fears head on, while this mother told he little boy that she would face his fears with him.

Maybe it was because he used to be a part of her and Master Splinter simply adopted us. Master Splinter taught us to fend for each other, the mother learned with her son.

I remember watching them at about 6 pm on week day nights. All they had was a small apartment, but that didn't matter they had each other and they were content. He would often tell her about school and she would listen attentively. And since he was a rater weak child he got beat up by the purple dragons regularly. Sometimes those jerks would beat on him right in front of her. When that happened she would run out to defend them, and even though she was a lot weaker then them and knew it herself she charged at them full force. When the boy grew he started to protect her. I loved watching them.

One year ago the boy was drafted into war. So his mother and him wrote constantly. I never got close enough to read her letters, but she was so sad most of the rime the letters were the only time I saw her happy. I was truly amazed that their blind was still so strong from such a strong distance.

Though this didn't last, on my last December on Earth the mother got a letter. She spent the entire night wailing in her apartment until the manager threatened to kick her out. She wrote more letters then ever but never got any.

Finally my curiosity got the better of me and I crept into the house one night to read the last letter she got. Apparently the valiant boy was captured at another soldier's extend. The chances of him still living were very low. Even so she wrote every night on the slim chance he was alive. She never gave up hope that he was alive. I wondered if I would ever get so lucky.

I was very jealous of the boy. I wanted her, I wanted a mother, or at least for a day. I wanted someone to neuter me and not expect so much like Master Splinter. I wanted someone who excepted my faults and loved me for all that I was and wasn't. For everything thing I could do and everything I couldn't.

When I was watching the small family I realized that's what our family needed. And since nobody but me knew what they were realized I figure I shouldn't be just a brother to my brothers but almost a mother. Someone to fall back on when they were down. I didn't realize how good of a job I did until I was watching them from the in between, and neither did they.

* * *

As the years passed I started to watch my enemies more and more. It got to the point where my family's was just so hard to watch that I simply settled for the Shredder. Of course over the first few weeks I spent as little time watching him as I could.

I could feel myself boil whenever he spoke. I HATED him. He caused all the suffering of my family. He murdered me but didn't even let me enjoy the privileges of death. He trapped me in cell forever and made me watch my family suffer. He was a monster. I wanted him dead. I wanted him ti suffer a long and painful death. I wanted to watch my brothers skin the murderer alive. And when he died I didn't want him to go and burn in Hell. No that was to good for him, I wanted him to suffer only the consequences of death. I wanted him standing next to me in tears as the great empire he spent his entire life working on falling down all around him.

In short I wanted revenge. I got desperate enough to do anything for it.

But that took awhile. When I first started watching him he was making plans to construct a new building. He wanted to start a new empire, adopt a new persona. His enemies knew way to much about his old one.

He was sitting in his meditation room when Karai came in.

"Master there are no currently abandoned buildings for your new construction site. And the buildings you do favor already have occupants that refuse to sell for you offered price." She stated.

The Shredder let out a frustrated sign, sure he could just send in a bunch of foot and force the occupants out, but that would make him look pretty suspicious , he didn't want to go through the trouble anyway.

Dr. Chaplin who had been listening from the hallway piped up and said "Hey! There's a abandoned warehouse just a couple of blocks south of Central Park! It's a pretty big lot and I'm sure it won't cost much."

"And why do you think they would offer it at such a low price?" the shredder snapped, he hated crediting other people for ideas better then his own.

Chaplin shut up, he looked as if Saki just slapped him. Saki turned around pleased with himself, mentally considering the idea. Surely whatever the potential problem with the building was he could easily spruce up. And if anyone asked he'd say it was his idea. He prepared the paper work, _south of Central Park._

_Abandoned warehouse just a couple of blocks south of Central Park, _why did that sound familiar?

* * *

_Nightmare, future. It was over. The Shredder was gone but I could not focus on that. _

_The fight was over, but I felt an emptiness inside of me I had never experienced. I couldn't believe this was real, this was happening. _

_"My brothers, my poor brothers," was all I could think of to say for them, "This world this future," the word tasted bitter on my tongue "Is a nightmare."_

_I could feel my stomach twist, I would never see them again. The same beings who were with me every second of my life. Who had been with me through everything the turtles I grew up with, gone forever._

_"It was a nightmare Don, but you Leo, Raph and Mikey," April tried to comfort me, but I could still hardly bear to hear their names, "You gave us back our future." she finished._

_Then I felt myself fading again. Something was pulling me away. I panicked, to disappear and never return. I gave April a desperate look._

_"April it's happening again! Somethings pulling me away! It's stronger this time." I yelled terrified._

_"Donnie remember there's always hope, no matter what." I hardly heard her last words as I was sucked into the unknown._

_

* * *

_**AUTHOR'S NOTE- **Yea I know not worth the wait, but hey leave a review anyway and good luck with the contest... please participate. _  
_


	5. The Visitors

**AUTHOR'S NOTE- **Hey readers and reviewers, welcome back to another exciting author's note before the Inbetween. Well I am pathetic, this chapter was suppost to go up Monday, but I didn't feel like writing it, and Tuesday I finished it.. at 2:44 AM, and at that time I didn't have the desire to do this author's note. Ehh better late then never... right? Now I promise to put chapter six up on Friday. If not you have the right to flame me about it. JK this is America you have all the rights u want! Anyway to the disclaimer!

**DISCLAIMER- **I don't own nothing! Leave me alone. As for last chapter's contest, the reference was from the song 'Letter's from War' by Mark Schultz and the reference was the mother and the little boy who went off to war.

* * *

"WHERE IS HE! WHERE IS MY BROTHA?" Raph had Hun to the wall his sai and Leo's katan were touching his neck.

"I told you freaks I DON'T HAVE HIM!" Hun cried, a mixture of fear and annoyance were in his voice.

All around them unconscious purple Dragons lay alongside their guns uselessly on the floor. They were in the trashed cruise ship that served as the headquarters for the purple dragons.

"Mikey search the ship, don't leave one crate unturned!" Leo ordered.

Then he got only a couple of inches from Huns face. "If I find out that you're lying, or if Don has even a scratch on him, I will deliver you such a hard punishment that would even impress the Shredder." Leo growled. The venom in his voice brought chills up Hun's and my spines.

Nevertheless Hun stupidly replied "How honorable."

Leo slammed Huns head to the wall and gave a tiny cut to his throat. If looks could kill Hun would have dropped dead.

"He's not here!" Mikey shouted, "I checked everywhere no sign or anything."

"I told you now let me go!" Hun shouted, pretty annoyed.

Raph, whose patience had already run out delivered a blow to his head and he fell instantly to the floor.

Leo growled in frustration, this whole attack had been a complete waste of time. As soon as the storm had ended they went out searching again and soon had found the ship the teen was talking about. Leo was so scared by then he had decided to just rush them. With fury he hadn't felt in awhile, they took over the ship in record time.

"Well if Hun don't have 'im, who does?" Raph asked impatiently

"He could have been thrown overboard..." Mikey quietly suggested.

"Hun ain't that stupid, he knows that if the thought even occurred to him we'd skin him alive." Raph replied.

"That only leaves Bishop..." Leo said more to himself.

"Why would Bishop want Don?" Mikey asked.

"This is Bishop, he probably wanted to dissect 'im" Raph snapped.

Leo had heard enough. "Maybe but we're not just going to sit around talking about it, we'll make a short simple plan that will lead nus to Bishop and do the same thing we did to Hun." he ordered.

"Man Leo I do love it when your wound up!" Raph exclaimed.

"Gulp" Mikey whimpered.

* * *

_When we returned to the lair, everything was normal, like nothing ever happened. When Casey came to greet us, he made it pretty clear that nothing did happen. _

_We decided mentally not to tell Casey what happened in these apparently ten minutes. He probably wouldn't have believed us anyway._

_I had been gone for only a day or so in the future but it felt like years. All those people I believed dead were standing there smiling in front of me. It took awhile for me to adjust._

_That night we each explained what happened in each of our adventures. Mikey couldn't get his story out fast enough._

_"From now on there is no need to just call me the Turtle Titan but by my new name The Turtle Titan, Battle Nexus champion the smart strong conquer of the universe!" He announced making a heroic pose on the kitchen table._

_"Get down shell for brains before yer big head breaks through the ceiling!" Raph snapped, throwing a bread roll at the Turtle Titan, Battle Nexus champion the smart strong conquer of the universe's head._

_Mikey stuck out his tongue and took his seat._

_"I still can't believe you of all people taught honor to a planet racer." Leo smirked.  
_

_"Yea? And whats so hard to believe about that?" Raph snapped._

_"Oh nothing" Leo taunted clearly enjoying the conversation. Raph glared at him._

_Master Splinter signed and glanced in my direction. I hadn't said anything all diner and had been playing with my food. I knew the future I went wasn't real but I still couldn't get it out of my mind. Future?_

_"My son what troubles you, you've been quiet all diner." he asked concerned._

_All eyes turned to me as I looked up._

_"Yea bro you haven't said anthin bout where you were sent to." Raph said_

_"Must have been interesting, when I was trying to rescue you I saw Foot symbols all over the place and everything was dark." Leo said_

_"Oh uh that.. was because I was sent..." I paused. I couldn't get the words out of my mouth. Here was my chance to get comfort I needed and I couldn't speak up, instead I lied. _

_"to another planet where Shredder's twin ruled, but as it turned out he was a kind dictator." I sweated as everyone gave me suspicious looks._

_"Hey if Mikey was sent to a Universe where turtles can fly I'll believe anything" Raph chuckled._

_"But then why'd you say when we saw each other again 'oh Mikey Raph you're alive and have both arms!'?" Mikey asked._

_I looked down and muttered "Just a misunderstanding." We ate the rest of dinner in silence. The word future couldn't get out of my head._

_

* * *

_I thought I would never see anyone inside of my cage. I thought nobody even knew I was there. I was wrong.

I wasn't watching anyone in particular one day. I just watched the spirits float from their human forms to Heaven and Hell. From as far as I could see Heaven was a bright light above me that hurt my eyes to look directly at. And Hell was a dark pit of black and red. I sympathized for those people who went down. There was where all the screams came from. They were always screaming their apologizes, but it was always too late. I wondered where I would go.

My family was never very religious. We were spiritual but not religious, there's a difference. I've heard that if you weren't a certain religion then you would automatically go to Hell no matter what good you've done. No matter you're personality if you weren't that religion you go to the Underworld. I guessed if I had ever escaped this cell I was doomed anyway. It wasn't fair, it's not like I could just walk into church or anything. To the people, the religious people who were going to spread an eternity in happiness I was a demon doomed to eternal suffering.

But to be honest, I didn't care where I went. Heaven or Hell as long as if I was with my family everything would be fine with me. I grew up that way. In life or death everything was better when you had someone with you.

Very few times I wished my brothers were with me, not to suffer but to help. Those times I felt incredibly selfish, but I couldn't stop myself. I needed them.

Well they came to me in a way.

They came into my cell and stood silently. I couldn't talk. They weren't the brothers I had left the day I had died, they were the brothers I left dead 30 years from now.

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTE- **You don't have to review it I know, this chapter sucked. But if there could be anything nice to say about this piece of fiction, please leave it in a review!


	6. The Invasion

**AUTHOR'S NOTE- **Don't kill me! I have an excuse... well not a good one. But I do have good news, this chapter is one of the most exciting yet! I personally prefer writing about the heroes instead of the villains but hey villains need their time to, ugh plots. Anyway enjoy and any and all questions please ask me.

**DISCLAIMER- **I do not own anything... besides my clothes... and probably scrunchy and a lot of things.. but nothing turtle related I don't even have a pet turtle!

* * *

Dr. Baxter Stockman. Now there was a character. When I was alive, admittedly I kind of looked up to the guy. Not his personality, but his fine work. His weapons were things I could only dream of. Though alive when the word Stockman came up I immediately thought egotistic lunatic.

Now when I hear the word, I think of that little boy who used to have tons of fun playing with chemistry sets. He didn't used to be a hardcore criminal, just a naturally curious mind.

His mother died when he was only eight years old and I can hear her from Heaven, watching him. Those times I wished I were in Hell. Whenever Stockman was tortured or suffering alive, his mother would scream for him. She would beg and beg mercy for him. I couldn't stand that. I tried to cover my ears whenever she screamed.

She sounded like she had just lost her entire world. A part of herself and now there was nothing else. She screamed louder and in more pain then anyone who went to Hell. There were times where she begged the tortures to just _kill_ her son, so she could once again hold him in her arms. She begged the angels but they could not help her.

Those nights when everything was silent I realized what a fool I'd been when I was alive. I just assumed Stockman was a cold hearted unloved man who only cared for himself. Now when I look at his life, I wish I had just sparred him mercy. I wished alongside her that his pain would end and he would leave that horrible place. I wished hen I had the chance I would just have murdered him. Sometimes for some people that's just the best thing for them.

All he wanted was his body back. It was one of the things we had in common. The more I really got to know him the more I realized he was like _me. _Scary thought really, but if Master Splinter hadn't found me chances are I may be only a brain as well.

He was working silently on his lab on his most complex exo-suit yet. Not a human body, they were to weak, but an indestructible metal suit. He was planning to escape Bishop's prison, then take over the air force or something. That part was a little fuzzy yet because he still didn't believe he would do it.

Stockman was a scientist, meaning he learned from his mistakes. He made sure that the suit was indestructible and only fired on his command. This time he made a self destruct switch that would be as devastating as an atomic bomb that spread the same length as well. He of course made it the perfect environment for a detached brain.

This time he was really proud of his work. It was different from his other designs. He had been working three years secretly on it and i was about a week before it's first test run. Then he would say good bye to all the demanding, brainless masters he had to endure and hello to his own will and decisions.

Oh yes today was going to be a great day.

* * *

Leo looked out the window of the copter. He stared at the clouds in an effort to distract himself from his ranging thoughts, but to no avail.

_What if Bishop doesn't have hm?_

_What if he already killed him?_

_What if we get killed for nothing?_

_What if we have to live the rest of our lives without Donnie?_

"Bishop's main base is 100 ft away." Leatherhead announced. He was driving the copter and trying bit's new clocking feature.

Even though the alligator hated Bishop and hated going to his base even more I was his best friend and my brothers sounded worried, that could only be bad. He was not sure about Leo's plan. When the desperate turtle had called him he had said that he was not sue if Bishop had me. And since Bishop was so dangerous he knew this was the turtle's last lead. the good thing was that this one was the most likely.

"There's the base!" Leatherhead declared showing the laboratory.

"Alright, Mikey Raph battle stations! Leatherhead take off the clocking shield and get a good shot at those missiles!" Leo ordered.

As soon as Raph sat down he fired a classic missiles at the launcher. Direct hit. The launcher blew up and sirens wailed into the night.

* * *

"Sir someone is attacking our defenses!" a desperate agent charged into Bishops office.

Bishop faced him "Well what are you telling me for? Get to your stations and fire back!" he snapped.

"Yes sir!" the agent replied and ran out.

Bishop looked through the window and his eyes widened in recognition.

"The turtles? Why are they attacking us?" he mumbled to himself.

* * *

A missile two times more powerful then their own came charging towards my brothers.

"LEATHERHEAD!" Leo screamed and the alligator quickly avoided it.

Raph and Mikey got a couple of more shots in and Leatherhead maneuvered around all the counters.

* * *

"Why are you giving them the warning shots!" Bishop yelled "Take out the big guns"

"Yes sir" the soldiers replied.

* * *

"We've got em runnin!" Raph cheered as the missile launches stopped.

Suddenly a multiple launcher launched 20 heat seeking missiles at them.

"You were saying Raph?" Mikey screeched.

"Leatherhead get to cover!" Leo demanded.

"Right away you may want to fasten your seat belts" Leatherhead responded as the turtles did so.

He quickly turned the copter around and launched it upwards. The missiles continued chasing their tail. He flew forward as fast as the thing would go but the missiles were gaining on them. Suddenly he dropped down to try and go underneath the missiles, but to no avail.

"Leatherhead nothings working!" Mikey panicked.

"Yet! nothing is working yet!" he responded and charged the craft directly at the base.

At 200 hundred miles an hour it was a direct collusion course. Mikey yelled and gripped his seat as hard as he could. Then a couple of feet before kaboom he ricocheted the copter as high as it could go. The missiles exploded on the base.

Mikey and Raph jumped into their places and began firing at the launchers. Though it wasn't doing anything, as soon as the smoke cleared they were completely unharmed.

"Alright time to show them e mean business." Leo ordered.

Raph nodded and prepared the most deadly missile we had.

* * *

Stockman needed to see his machine's power intake. He decided to reroute all of the most powerful nuclear weapons power sources to his machine.

* * *

Bishop's eyes widened as he saw the missile. That thing had the energy of a pipe bomb.

"Fire the nuclear missiles!" he ordered.

* * *

Now my brothers shook in their shells as they saw the nuclear deployer rise from hiding. It was by far the biggest launcher the had seen all day.

"Nuclear missiles" Leatherhead said fearfully, "Most accurate missile Bishop owns.

They stood still in horror for a couple of seconds, but nothing happened.

* * *

"WHY ISN'T IT FIRING!" Bishop yelled in frustration.

"No power boss!" an agent replied.

"No power.. get Stockman!" he commanded.

* * *

"Stockman!"

The said genius dropped his wrench when his name was yelled.

"Yes Bishop?" he said through clenched teeth.

"What happened to the nuclear weapons?"

Stockman looked over at his machine, "I uhh needed the power for something"

"Well then reroute it we're under attack!" Bishop demanded.

"Calm your artificial blood cells I'm on it." he said and Bishop ended the call

Mumbling Stockman turned and started to. His precious machine would have to wait.. again. Idiot Bishop.

* * *

After a few horror few seconds Mikey broke the silence and asked "Weren't we suppost to go boom?"

"I guess we got lucky, Leatherhead go to the next phase!" Leo ordered.

Leatherhead nodded and charged full speed at the commander base.

* * *

"Sir their going to ram us!" cried a solider.

"No they wouldn't, they'd be destroyed too, they aren't that insane." Bishop grumbled.

The copter kept coming. _They would. _Bishop thought in horror.

"Everyone out now!" he yelled and ran pout the building.

Just in time, for him anyway, to see the copter explode on the building blowing it too smithereens.

_Something was not right here, this wasn't the turtles usual attack method._ he thought to himself.

Though when the smoke cleared there was nothing to be seen.

* * *

Well in his prospective, there was nothing to be seen, but I saw my brothers hiding behind a roof nearby.

"Everyone alright?" Leo asked. Nods.

"Good now you all know the plan, Leatherhead, Mikey cut off his exits, Raph your with me."

They split up.

* * *

Bishop headed off to Stockman's lab. Something about him was very suspicious these days. He also needed to check the security videos. He highly doubted the turtles would commit an act of suicide like that. What he couldn't figure out was why attack him? Why go through all this trouble? They weren't exactly fans of ambushes like that.

"Stockman!" he yelled when he got into the mechanics lab but immediately stopped when he saw the huge machinery around him.

"What's this? I didn't approve of any of this."

Stockman cursed inwardly, his machine was not only incomplete but powerless as well. He quickly thought up a lie.

"Well you see it's a new armor for your agents and I wanted it to be a surprise." he tried to explain.

Bishop raised an eyebrow "There aren't any surprises here Stockman..."

He was interrupted by Mikey and Leatherhead slamming the door and locking it. "You sure about that?" Mikey smirked.

Leo and Raph crashed through a nearby window. "Come with us Bishop!" Leo demanded.

"What is this? A surprise attack? I thought you turtles knew better then that." Bishop taunted pressing a button to call in his guards.

Leo jumped toward him in an effort constrain him. Bishop easily dodged and Raph came behind him. He threw his sais at Bishop who once again dodged and the weapons ended up in Leo's shoulders. He fell to the ground.

With a scream of rage Raph charged his fist at Bishop who simply caught it and threw him over to Mikey. Both of them stayed motionless on the ground. Leatherhead swung at his head but Bishop cartwheeled out of the way to a nearby circuit board. Leatherhead brought both fist on him but Bishop maneuvered again and the alligator ended up with an electrical shock.

Bishop's guards stormed in when the gator was fell to the floor.

"Take them to the dissection table, I'll be there in a minute." Bishop commanded.

He stared coldly at Stockman "And take Stockman to the torture room, where he will be taught a lesson against trying to betray a government funded company."

The guards did as told. Stockman cried in his ind. It was not fair! He didn't even get the chance to _try_ and betray the company with his newest creation. He hated those turtles.

* * *

For a couple of seconds everyone was quiet. I still couldn't find my voice. My brothers in this form, weren't suppost to exist it was suppost to be an alternate furture.

Leo blind, Mikey without an arm, Raph tortured that wasn't suppost to be real but here they were.

I finally found my voice "But-but how?" I breathed. "You-you weren't suppost to exist you.."

"We're from the future Donnie, 30 years from where your watching." Leo answered.

I froze "F-future, but none of that was suppost to happen I never disappeared!"

"Yes you did, when you went missing we searched everywhere, finally we gave up and assumed you were dead... guess we were right." Raph spoke up.

No I disappeared from reality because Draco sent me to an..."

"We never said that's how you disappeared, you really disappeared later on a junk run." Mikey explained

I couldn't breath "You mean that world..."

"Really was the future." Leo completed.

"Bu-but I I"

"Your disappearance caused a chain of events, which our watching now, we were lost without you Don we didn't know what to do who to ask for help." Leo said.

"Why didn't you warn me?" I yelled "Why when I was in the future tell me I was going to die?"

"We're not allowed to do that Don, it could destroy the future."

"More then it already is!" I yelled.

"We're not sure Don." Mikey replied.

I desperately asked "Well is there anything I can do to stop it. Anything top prevent the nightmare from coming true?"

"Yes, you can accept you death and move on." Leo declared.

"Wha-what?" I whispered.

"It's not the Shredder's fault of the events, well mostly not his fault..it's yours." Raph said angrily.

"My fault! How is it my fault? And why did your Shredder murder me?"

"Because he knew that's what would start the chain of events, that would declare his victory." Leo anwsered simply.

"But why now why 19 instead of fifteen or something?"

"Because when your nineteen you complete your prize stack" Raph growled.

"It was suppost to protect you!"

"Yea well it did the opposite! you should of said something Donnie you shoulda said a lot of things!" Raph yelled.

"Easy Raph" Leo calmed him.

"We came to warn you accept your death and move on Don, your family can't continue with their lives until you do" Leo contiued.

"Are you insane? I was nineteen when I was killed by a crazy murder and you want me to just move on?" I shouted.

"This isn't about you Donnie its about.."

"Leo Don's gotta learn this himself, the future is inevitable, no matter what we're doomed" Mikey sighed.

Leo cast me a disappointed look and said "your not the only one who matters here, remember that" and he and my other brothers faded away.

I wish I had listened to him but at the time I thought he was insane, and I was not going to accept death.

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTE- **That's all folks I'm ending the story here... JK LOL no it's still gotsa lot to go! Review please, it inspires me!


	7. The Risk

**AUTHOR'S NOTE- **Okay I am REALLY happy today. I'm not going tell you why, but I am. And b4 the next chapter I just wanted to say that from now on I will be uploading every other day. But I could upload every day if u guys review or send a pm and tell me. Sigh 2day is SO great!

**DISCLAIMER- **I do not own TMNT but even that doesn't ruin 2day!

* * *

_I hit him harder than I ever hit anyone in my entire life. I screamed. He was the one who killed my brothers and I was finally getting him back. For all the pain he caused_, _for the people he took a way from me. But no matter how hard I hit him, it was never enough. No matter how much of his blood scattered on the floor, it never matched the suffering of my family's death. But I only had one shot and I was so mad. I just closed my eyes and took out all the pain of lose out on him._

_Finally I got tired and stopped, just for a breather and when I once again opened my eyes stared in horror. For it is not the bleeding face of the Shredder's I hoped for, but instead the lifeless one of my brother._

_I stepped back and screamed. The last of my brothers fell lifelessly next to my other ones. I looked at myself, and instead of my usual form I was a mutated that my brothers had to trap in a cage._

_I heard laughing, and turned to face the Shredder_. _The world around me turned into the horrific future I once visited._

_I grew mad, madder then I ever was. Even though I was the murder I still blamed the Shredder for the death of my family. I charged at him, full force. But he just smiled and vanished._

_And then I was falling into total blackness._

_

* * *

_Agent Bishop stormed into the labortory located a mile underground. He faced his captives with an irritated glare. Something was definitely wrong, he knew it. This was all somehow a crazy trap or scheme. And according to the intensity of their latest ambush, it looked pretty bad for his felicity_. _He absolutely hated playing along with my brothers' scheme but he had no choice.

"Welcome back turtles." he snarled as soon as they started to stir.

All of my brothers slowly and quietly started to open their eyes, a little woozy from their previous beating.

"If you think I'm that gullible to think that out there was a real ambush then I'm afraid you were confusing me with the Shredder." Bishop growled.

No one talked.

Bishop sighed, he didn't have much patience today, with Stockman's attempt at betral he was pretty annoyed.

"Why did you come here?" he demanded "Why did you plan an ambush that didn't stand a chance then get yourselves captured? Why..."

"Where is my brother?" Leo asked in a firm voice.

"Your brother?" Bishop asked, suddenly feeling very stupid that he didn't notice there were only three of them. The Stockman problem got him very preoccupied.

"He's missin and we had a theory you know where he is!" Raph snapped.

Bishop's eyes widened, then smiled devilishly, well at least today wasn't all that bad.

"I don't have your brother so I'm afraid this entire ambush was a waste of your time... and lives." he added with a smirk.

* * *

Baxter Stockman had never been so feed up in his entire life. Usually on these trips to the torture chamber, when he was with the Shredder he was afraid, but now he was sick of it. He had never been to Bishop's torture chamber before. He didn't even know he had one. But he suspected it was worse then Shredders.

He didn't care. There was no other thing that Bishop could possibly take away from him. If Bishop killed him, he would be doing him a favor. There was truly nothing left to lose.

So then he thought to himself, why be a slave any longer, no punishment could ever bring him more pain then he had ever experienced.

The guards set him down in a new liquid surrounded by glass. Judging by his surroundings this was like an electrical chair, except for a detached brain.

This was it, he thought to himself, ethier escape now, or die trying. he quickly came up with a plan.

He was in water, which could easily short circuit the chamber. He still was able to move his brain around and he was placed in a container without a lid. If he could make a big enough splash he could short circuit the whole system.

The guard started up the electrical wires.

_This is it, _Stockman thought to himself as he saw the volts fire through the wires. As soon as the volts hit the chamber he shot up the container into the air. He stayed there for less then a second, to just barely get a glance at the guard's shock face, before falling back into the shocking water. Excess water splashed the system and as predicted the entire system failed.

Stockman, wasteing no time quickly leaned against his container until it tipped over and spilled out it's contents.

The guards struggled to go and catch him, but he was too slippery. He quickly scanned the room until he found the communicator to his lab.

He hopped onto the button that started the transmission and screamed "Emergency power on, attack mode!"

Then a pair of hands grabbed and squeezed him.

"Got you!" the guard said triumphantly. Stockman was already losing consciousness from all the stress on his brain. The guard quickly dropped him back into a new container.

Everything was blurry for Stockman as the scene played out in front of him. The guard going to the system controls, a big crash, a scream, more crashes then silence.

When the world became clear to Stockman he saw a dieing guard and his glorious invention in the ruins of the confinements of the room. The machine was powerless, but magnificence in it's stance.

Once again he tipped over his container and immediately began working on his creation, of he could smile he would, he never thought this would work.

"S-stockman escape-escaping send h-help"

Stockman turned to face the guard on the floor utereing his last words. He brought the foot of the machine down on him, murdering him in no time at all. The he turned for the door.

* * *

Bishop was so mad his face was actually turned red when he heard the plea for help.

He quickly called for a replacement and turned to his captives.

"I'll be right back." he snarled.

Leo wouldn't believe it for second, this was all a waste of time. It was to horrible to be true. That's what he kept telling himself as the others continued to play out their plan.

As soon as Bishop left, Leatherhead reached for the short circuiting shuriken I had once created with his tail. He short circuited the main controls, quietly and my brothers fell to the floor.

None of them felt like getting up. All felt like the weight of the world was on them and they had finally fallen. There was nothing left.

Leo looked at our remaining brothers and could read their minds. _No, _he thought, all of this couldn't be for nothing, he wouldn't let it be, they were continuing with the plan no matter what Bishop said.

"Get up" he ordered Raph and Mikey "We have to search the place."

Both of them looked at him with the perfect face of disappointment, "But Bishop said..." Mikey started.

"I don't care what he said, he was lying, all of this it wasn't for nothing we are going to search the entire laburnum for any sign of Donnie just like we planned." he commanded and it was official.

They split up and searched each and every part of the underground maze. They plunged through all the locked doors and barged through the gates. Nothing could stop them, and everything that tired never stood a chance.

Each empty door was a staggering disappointment, each got them more and more scared. They even got desperate enough to wish to see my body on the floor. That way at least they'd know.

Leo had never felt the emotions of disappointment and fear quite like this before. He felt tears in the very back of his eyes from mere frustration. Leo never cried.

He kept feeling that feeling he felt in the freezing river, that he had lost me forever.

* * *

All Agent Bishop found when he entered his torture chamber was a dead bod and a giant gaping hole letting the various rays of sunshine in the usually depressing place

If there was one mind that was as brillant as Stockman's then the said genis would be replaced and killed. But of course that scientist already worked for the Shredder.

He began mentally working out a plan to track stockman when a transmission interrupted his train of thought.

"Sir the turtles have escaped their straps."

Bishop destroyed the closest piece of technology to him. He didn't usually get this frustrated, but he hated not being in charge of a complex scheme. He hated even more falling for a complex scheme.

"Block the exits I'm on my way." he commanded.

* * *

Raph slammed another door in frustration when a p[air of hands grabbed him, before he had a chance to struggle inserted a tranquilizer in him. He fell limp.

"Raph!" Mikey cried from nearby.

He quickly kicked the guard who had his brother and dodged an incoming tranquilizer shot.

Bishop turned the corner to find the fight going on. He had a huge tranquilizer gun in his grip but no darts, he was too mad to fill them anyway.

He crept up behind Mikey then brought the end of his gun down on his head as hard as he could. The turtle fell instantly. But that wasn't enough for Bishop.

He beat him over and over again with the guns rear until Mikey's head started to bleed. In my cell I prayed that it wasn't cracked. Then Bishop took several darts and stuck them into my poor little brother's limp body.

* * *

"Last door in the cavern Leonardo." Leatherhead announced.

"Then this must be it" he replied somehow retaining all the confidence in the world.

He reached for the final door when a voice echoed from behind.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you."

He turned to face the despised Bishop and his guards holding our brothers by their necks.

"LET THEM GO!" Leo demanded forgetting the door.

"Who's going to make me?" Bishop smirked.

With all the fury in the universe, Leo charged at him, butr before he could get to Bishop several darts hit his skin. From behind he could hear Leatherhead's grunts of pain. Then everything went dark.

* * *

When Leo regained his consciousness he saw Bishop's angry eyes piercing at them.

"I thought I told you I didn't have your brother, I don't remember you to be such simple minded specimen."

"My brothers, w-where are they." Leo panted.

"All around you ready to be exploited and dissected, but you may die in pleasure knowing that thanks to you one of the planet's most unstable and brilliant minds in going on a joyride in the most complex machinery human made" he snarled.

Leo ignored him to focus on his remaining little brothers. Raph looked fine but Mikey was a bloody mess.

Bishop saw him studying "That's all you care about umm" he started "The well being of your brothers, well I'm afraid I'm going to have to put a stop to their major detraction to my program"

He picked up a pretty large knife and walked over to Mikey.

"NO!" Leo screamed as Bishop pierced the knife in the bottom of his leg and slowly move his way upwards. He struggled as much as he could nut a strapped to the table tightly.

"Let im go!" Raph screamed, just waking up.

Bishop smiled and deepened the knife making his way up into the waist. Now my brothers had adrenalin surging through their bodies as they shook the table with their distress.

At first they were just plain demanding for his freedom, but in a few seconds they turned into desperate pleas for mercy. Both were echoing each other when they screamed they'd do anything to make him stop.

But Bishop simply smiled hared and broke his way into Mikey's stomach.

From the in between I was shouting as loud as I could. I was rattling the bars, snarling and crying all at once. I had never felt so helpless in my entire life. My little brother needed me now more then ever and I could do nothing.

No I wouldn't except that, that would be like giving up, and I would never ever give up on any of my brothers. This is what I felt when I made my first short appearance back on Earth.

* * *

I wasn't a turtle when I returned to Earth for the first time, or even a spirit, more like a whip of energy, energy that was impenetrable. I flew into Leo because he was exerting the most energy.

Mikey was his little brother, from birth he had been assigned to protect us. Not from Master Splinter but us Raph Mikey and I, we gave Leo the honor and burden of being our guardian. That job was his life, and since he had already lost one of us he was willing to exert his entire life's energy to protect the remaining.

When I entered Leo he experienced a rush of power he had never felt before. It was more powerful then when he transformed into his avatar of the dragon. But that wasn't what he was thinking when I entered him all he was thinking of was Mikey.

His entire being started to light up in a mixture of purple and blue. Raph shut blue and starred. With a determined scream he broke out of his imprisonment and charged at Bishop.

Said mad scientist was just about to making his way into my little brother's heart when he heard the scream and turned around. He could only gasp as Leo snatched the knife out of his hands and inserted it deep into his throat. From there he went horizontal until Bishop's head was hanging of like a loose fingernail. Blood was all over the place, but Leo was soaked in it.

Then he dropped the knife and tore the rest of Bishop's head off with bare hands.

Leo and I were both still with shock, I quickly faded from him and he dropped the head in disgust. Raph was still attached to the table with his jaw hanging open. A few second went by of silence.

I was the only thing on Leo's mind now. He knew that energy was me.l He turned around and released the straps on Leatherhead and Raph. They both ran over to care for Mikey. Raph only looked back to see Leo leaving the room.

Leo opened the last door of the cavern to come face to face of what he had expected, nothing.

* * *

_When I next opened my eyes, I was surrounded by the familiar setting of my room. My hands automatically went to cover my screaming mouth. I looked around cautiously. everything looked the same as when I went to bed last night_. _Normal, as if nothing happened._

_That was maddening. I mean a lot of the other parts of these nightmares were the clear definition of insanity, but this, one minute being in the hell version of New York the next safe in bed was slowly getting to me. _

_It was as if I were a dam. The water was like my raging emotions and it was getting a little to high. But I had enough support I could hold them all in, all contained from the world. But these nightmares, night after night I was finally starting to crack._

_Breakfast, what was normal to my family was a new and unique kind of torture for me. I didn't have my usual appetite. In fact it was almost like I didn't have a stomach. But I didn't want to concern my family, so I forced down as much food as I could bare, which was barely half an egg and a piece of toast. _

_I had many opportunities to tell my family what had happened, but I could never bring myself to, I never found the strength. I tired to ignore it, put it all in the past but the nightmares just got worse.  
_

_

* * *

_**AUTHOR'S NOTE-** And yet another cliff hanger! I'm just so mean. At least this one isn't as bad as ones before. So review guys and gals, please make my great day an incredible one!_  
_


	8. Villians Rising

**AUTHOR'S NOTE- **Here I am, again! I kind of want to finish this by August 23, for unspoken reasons, wish me luck! And thanks 4 u supporters and readers and reviewers.

**DISCLAIMER- **All I own is Bubba, my stuffed turtle.

_

* * *

Every time I closed my eyes I had another vision. None of the visions were exactly alike but they all had similarities._

_1. In all of my visions my family was dead._

_2. In one way or another it was always my fault._

_and 3. The alternate future was always involved somehow._

_Eventually I stopped sleeping all together. It was a quiet resolution I made. I hide in my room until all my family was asleep then I would go to my lab and pull an all nighter. In the mourning I would have twice the coffee I usually had with twice the caffeine. I would never allow my family to see me do this. But as anyone could predict, this plan didn't go as well as I had hoped._

_

* * *

_Dr. Baxter Stockman did not get to far in his machine. The main reason being that it was incomplete. But he did manage to get to outside the city boundaries into a large field. There he hide the machinery as well as he could and waited for the inevitable.

Stockman might have been an egocentric nutcase, but he was not stupid. He knew it was only a matter of time before Bishop came and took him back and then, he didn't want to know. all he knew was that he had failed, again. The only place he could get enough parts for his machinery was Bishop's lab and that was just like surrendering.

Several solutions ran through his mind but he ended up choosing suicide. He decided when Bishop did finds him and take him back to he torture room that he would find some device that would finally rid him of the burden of life. He wasn't very fond of his last option but what chose did he have? He was so tired of being used like a computer by these merciless dictators that death sounded like a treat more than an ultimate fear.

With his mind made up he waited. Minutes past into hours and the sun finally went down. Something wasn't right here, he thought to himself. Surely Bishop should have tracked him down by now. And there was no possible chance Bishop would let him leave without a fight.

He came up with a new plan, he would sneak into Bishop's base and steal all the necessary parts for his wonderful creation. It was a long shot but he didn't care either way, at least this way he'd be going down with more of a fight. He set to work on his machine's emergency power.

* * *

Saki slowly walked into the warehouse. It had been a wonderful place really, it was big enough and at a really low price.

Currently the construction crew were miking some last final touches. He had purchased it a few weeks ago and now was on the down low.

All of his enemies thought he was stranded on the asteroid far out in space. The situation in which he had managed to escape in a miraculous amount of good luck, well for him.

I was curious in the in between of how he came to be alive in the future, so I looked up how he was rescued. As I watched the scene unfold itself, I laughed. Not because the Shredder coming back to life was a good thing, but because fate was making way to obvious of an appearance for my liking. In fact it was so unreal that for a couple of moments I thought I was trapped in a story where the writer tried way to hard to make real problems for me. My entire life was just a unfortunate chain of events.

When Shredder was rescued it was because scientist inhabiting another far, far away planet picked him up on an expedition. They set up camp on that very same asteroid the Shredder was exiled on, and found a life form enveloped in ice.

They returned back to their home world to study it, but accidentally resurrected it. In a matter of weeks their specimen the Shredder had taken over their home world, which he ended up completely destroying. Then he stole their last and greatest space craft and took it back to Earth. I think the rest is pretty predictable enough.

Saki strolled up to the highest point of his structure and viewed the city, in a matter of time it would be his to command.

* * *

_My back slammed into the all, for the fifth time in a row, but this tie I didn't get up, I just lay still. Leo ran over to me and tried getting me to come to. But everything was a mixture of blurry glos. Leo's voice sounded like strangled muffles, and the world wouldn't stop spinning._

_A splash of cold water brought me back to the to training room. My family surrounded me. They all looked extremely concerned, well except for Mikey and Raph. Super._

_"What the shell did you do that for!" Raph exploded at Mikey._

_The said turtle held an empty bucket and had a sheepish look on his face. "Well that always works in movies!" he defended himself._

_"Quiet guys!" Leo ordered "he's coming to."_

_I didn't like this, all this attention and concern for me. I tried to explain that I was fine but was to weak to speak. _

_"My son, my son are you alright?" Master Splinter asked, worry prominent in his voice._

_"Come on lets get him to bed I think he needs some rest." Leo suggested and began to pick me up. _

_Those words brought energy back, some anyway._

_"No, no" I said just barely shrugging him off "I'm fine."_

_He gave a disbelieving look. Of course he would, anyone with eyes could see I was far from fine. I hadn't slept in seven days and it was starting to show. Layers of bags were under my eyes that not even the mask could completely cover up._

_"Don this is the fifth time you've been knocked down and all of us had been going very easy on you, plus you can hardly stand up." Leo explained softly._

_My heart skipped a beat. I had to prove him wrong, if I was put to bed then i would surely fall asleep and if I had one more nightmare I would surely snap. The walls of the dam were getting pretty worn pretty fast._

_"Yes I can." I responded as confidently as I could. Then I forced my self up using the wall and my bo for support. I managed a few wobbly seconds on my feet then I dropped to the floor._

_Leo caught me before I hit the floor. "This is worse then I thought," Leo worriedly observed "Don your exhausted, when's the last time you went sleep?"_

_But I could not answer, by that time I was already engaged in a battle with sleep and I was quickly losing. As Leo said his last few words I exited the world of normality and entered the one of insanity._

* * *

Stockman took a deep breath as he approached the prison he had just escaped. He didn't see any guards, which just made him more nervous. Whatever happens he kept telling himself you can't lose.

With that he took off to the center that used to be his section and tore of the roof of the room. Then he waited for some kind of alarm to sound off or emergency security measures go off but there was nothing.

After a few uneventful seconds he started quickly gathering supplies and working on his machinery. He kept turning his head, fully expecting to see Bishop charge at him with some kind of weapon. But nothing happened. If he had a heart it wpuld have been beating out of control.

After panic filled hours, daylight approached and Stockman finally completed his creation. This was insane. Where was Bishop? Surely he wasn't out searching. Baxter Stockman never got that lucky.

His curiosity got the better of him and he started to search the base. All he found was guard less rooms and operations on computer's left incomplete.

What happened her? He thought to himself. He couldn't imagine one reason why Bishop and his agents would suddenly and out of nowhere disappear until he came into the dissection room. Where all his questions and many more were anwsered.

He certainly did not expect to see a headless Agent Bishop when he came into the chamber, but it did certainly put a smile on his face. Bishop dead? It was to good to be true he thought to himself, but there he was, dead.

He felt like jumping up and down. This event gave him a boost of hope that would last him for years. Maybe this was a sign, a sign telling him he shouldn't give up on his goal. His desire for power. Maybe luck was finally on his side.

He decided not to waste this incredible stroke of luck. He decided to regenerate all the weapons and make a quick rise to the top. Since he had no computers, it should be quick and easy. But for that he would need a lot of power. The whole city's power to be accurate.

He set to work. The technology at Bishop's base was powerful enough that it could enable him to reroute all the power of the city to his project area. When he went underway with his plan he came in with a conflict. There was a construction area taking up a lot of power and he was unable to drain it.

_Well by computer,_ he thought devilishly to himself.

To stop the construction he sent over a couple of missiles to the site, which was also known as Shredder's new lair.

* * *

Saki had barely managed to get out with breath in his body. The missiles came so unexpected and fast, he had to jump out of his window and fall a couple of stories. He turned around and screamed in frustration.

All his hard work and glory was now nothing but as crater in the middle of the city. The collusion had destroyed the entire block. It would take months to rebuild his establishment.

"CHAPLIN!" He roared. The said scientist reported at once.

"Track the location where the missiles were sent and send an army of foot there." he demanded.

"Yes sir" Chaplin replied and ran off to work.

From the in between I was hardly paying any attention to that rather than staring in horror at what was uncovered. What used to be well hidden beneath hard steel floor was now covered by a mere door. It was an underground storage room, for the most dangerous weapons ever created.

* * *

The only thing that startled Stockman more then the army of foot heading his way, was their leader the Shredder. The tyrant he once believed to be dead was proudly leading his troops into the base grounds.

Scared did not even begin to describe what he was currently feeling. He knew a lot about the Shredder and the fact that the man was nearly indestructible.

he quickly started to prepare every weapon he had when he realized in horror that his base had absolutely no power. Someone had hacked into his system and diverted the power. But the only being who could do that was... he stared out the window to see his hated apprentice Chaplin.

The foot barged in and from every entrance they could locate. From the emitting smoke from the ruins a very angry looking Shredder appeared.

"Who is responsible for the missiles?" he demanded. He waited a few quite seconds before an answer emerged.

"I am!" Before the Shredder could turn around a giant mechanical arm threw him against the wall.

The Shredder's eyes widened as he hissed in recognition. "Stockman.."

Stockman smirked "Yes it's me and better than ever! Now with my new suit and all it's features I'm indestructible!"

"We'll have to see about that." Shredder smirked "Foot ninja attack!"

* * *

The battle was not long. Although the machinery did hold it's own for a while Baxter was outnumbered and barely had any power.

The foot kept piling on him and as soon as he beat them off new batch came. Finally he ran out of power and stood defeated in front of the Shredder.

Whom of which inspected the machinery with interest. "To repay for your damage of my lair I will take this armor, and for your betral to Bishop you will be my slave." with that Stockman was carried off.

Somehow the scientist wasn't surprised. It was typical that an incredible good luck streak was ruined by a horrific one. And that his newly achieved freedom was short lived. After all he wasn't a very lucky man.

That night his mother screamed louder then ever, and I got absolutely no sleep.

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTE-** So what will happen to Mikey? Will he survive? And how will Leo tell Master Splinter he failed in finding his brother? ANNNND wat's gonna happen now that the Foot has no competition. All questions may be anwsered! (Reviewing increases the chances of you guys finding out)


	9. Failure

**AUTHOR'S NOTE- **So anyone confused yet? I know I am. JK JK. Do not worry my readers, patience is a virtue everything will b anwsered in due time, due time.

**DISCLAIMER- **Do I have 2 do this every chapter? Oh well I like doing it anyway. I absolutely positively do not own the four turtles brothers in the sewers, or the rabbit rat.

_

* * *

Bolts were firing all around me. Swords were flashing each way. I couldn't see my family anywhere. I yelled for help but nobody heard me. I was being beaten by a mass of... demons. There were no faces just red eyes. _

_Finally I ran right through them, but felt a pain like no other. That's when I saw them, my brothers in the same mess. In the same pain, being beaten no matter which way they turned. All of them were screaming. Even Leo and Raph. I stared ahead, they needed me to fight to help. But instead of rescuing them I ran._

_It turned and ran as fast as I could the other way and I never looked back. I had failed my brothers entirely. And somehow I knew that my brothers were in that mess for me somehow and I abandoned them, like a coward. No not even a coward, like a dishonorable stranger._

_As I ran voices echoed all around me._

_"We thought you were dead."_

_"How the shell could you just abandon us like that!"_

_"Master Splinter always believed that you would come back."_

_"How the shell could you just abandon us like that!" that voice was most prominent._

_I ran faster but that voice just became louder and the single voice. I couldn't escape, I couldn't run fast enough, and then I was falling._

_

* * *

_There are certain occurrences in life that we all remember forever. Either they were that terrific or that bad that makes them apart of us. And those memories reshape our character to either make us better or worse.

For Raph and Leo walking home with our dying brother in their hands was one of them. That was it, Bishop was their last lead, their last chance and now that he was out. Leo could feel his stomach twist, why didn't he join me on that dumpster run?

Mikey weighed about 200 Lbs which was the second lightest out of all of us, I being the first. Or was the first. Neither Leo or Raph complained about carrying him all the way home. In fact they insisted. They didn't have the heart to call April and Casey and ask for a ride. For some reason both of them had lost all means to speak. Each mile had been filled with dead silence.

Leatherhead went home his own separate way. He promised to try and make contact with professor Honeycutt and check on what he knew. But none of my brothers had much hope in that. In Leo the feeling that I was gone was all he felt and all he could think of was me_.  
_

_

* * *

_

_Leo slowly approached my room and found me sitting Indian style on the floor with my new toy car._

_He smiled "Built another one?" he asked and chuckled as I jumped and looked around madly._

_When I calmed down I replied "Oh yeah not only did I fix the bugs out of the last model but this one can fly!"_

_Leo gave me a questioning look. I must of had the most confident looking smile on my face._

_"Uh Don I don't think you can make it fly. I mean c'mon a flying car? It's impossible." he tried to reason._

_My smile grew "Nothings impossible."_

_Then to show him I got out my remote and fully revealed my car, which in Leo's and my opinions was a much nicer style then the last one. I had got really lucky. I had painted this one with some leftover paint I found at the dumpster. It was my favorite color as well, purple. The remote was a little more crude, duck tape was it's main content but it got the job done. Then I made it drive forward, straight to a nearby wall and just when it was about to collide I swiftly turned._

_"That's cool, but it still can't fly" Leo said, now cocky._

_"Oh just watch." I countered, just as cocky._

_I pressed a button on the remote that was suppost to activate it's wings, but instead it blew up in a puff of smoke._

_When the smoke cleared I had a shocked expression on my face and Leo was on the floor laughing.."I-I told you so!" he cried._

_I picked up the remains of my car to study it and Leo left still very amused. I suppose most other mechanics would be pretty upset if that happened, but I wasn't. In fact I was kind of happy. When something broke I was able to fix it again and improve it. That attitude came in handy considering most if not all of my creations have been destroyed beyond repair at least once.  
_

_A few wees later Leo was practicing on a balancing move with his katanas, which was balancing on his tippy toes and his katanas on his finger nails. He had just gotten it down when something in the air bumped straight into him knocking him down to the floor. When he looked up to investigate he saw a flying purple car._

_

* * *

_

Mikey moaned a little. Raph and Leo stopped at once. They waited a couple of moments before once again continuing. Neither wanted him to wake up. Then he would have to hear the news about how his older brothers had failed. About how I wasn't coming home.

That was a terrible to think about much less say. The very thought of never walking these sewers again with me made them sick.

Leo wasn't one to think negatively, that was me, he wasn't an optimist either. No matter how hard he tried he couldn't imagine being alive or finding me at all. He couldn't imagine me being dead either. He couldn't think of the next time he came across me he would be staring at lifeless eyes.

Raph would not let himself think like that. In his mind I was alive and that was it.

He was right, I wasn't dead. I was just in some very elaborate trap. And now since they knew I wasn't on Earth anymore they could focus on the spiritual realm more. And then they would find where the Shredder was keeping me, and indeed find a way to set me free. I believed in that so much. I even believed I would get my body back. I had all the confidence in the world for my family, after all they could do the impossible.

* * *

My brothers could hardly believe what they were seeing when they walked into our lair. Master Splinter was sprawled across the floor harshly whispering Japanese prayers.

I felt like I had just been stabbed, I understood completely what he was moaning and I felt betrayed. He was begging the angels to reconsider their choice, to protect me. How could he just beg for my life? He was suppost to protect me no matter where I was. He was my father and he gave up on me. He lay defeated on the floor.

He looked up as my brother's entered and his eyes immediately went to Mikey.

"My s-so.." He couldn't finish the word. He motioned them towards him.

"He's going to be alright Master Splinter, we'll patch him up and he'll be back to normal." Leo tried to calm him as he settled Mikey down on Splinter's lap.

"My poor poor so-so" he whispered stroking Mikey's face and holding him close.

"Master Splinter are you ok?" Raph asked worriedly.

"I'm sorry Master we didn't find Donatello, we...I failed you." Leo said looking down.

Splinter cringed at my name. He stared at Mikey and fought back tears. Though he couldn't stop those few cascading down.

Raph, still hopeful tried to cope "But but we won't give up, Leatherhead is calling Honeycutt and.."

"You will not find him my sons. He can not be found. He's g-go-gon" Master Splinter couldn't finished.

"You searched for him spiritually," Leo said for him "And found him with Master Yoshi"

Splinter shook his head in a whisper he said "I searched everywhere I could and found nothing, I can search the entire Universe including Heaven but not..." he stopped, this was the most painful thing he had ever had to do. How could he tell his sons that their brother was currently in eternal suffrage?

Leo urged him to continue "Hell" he whispered but Leo and Raph heard it as a scream.

There wasn't even a couple of seconds of silence before Raph shouted 'No no that's not true! It's just not Donnie doesn't belong in Hell he doesn't deserved it! He's a hero who did so much good for people! No! The Shredder he goes to Hell! Not Donnie..." he was in tears by now.

"You're wrong!" he pointed his finger at Splinter "You're missin somethin Don's not in Hell he's..." He was already crying so hard he could hardly talk.

He had yelled at our Master, he turned to run in shame when someone grabbed his wrist. He could hardly believe it was Leo. Leo would have killed him if he ever yelled at Splinter but now... Leo pulled him into a tight hug. Raph gave in and wailed into his shoulder.

"This is no time to be alone" Leo whispered to him.

They both hugged one another as if they would never let go.

* * *

Raph stared at Mikey with a blood shot expression. He was in his bed, wrapped up in many blankets warm and cozy. But he was hardly breathing.

Raph couldn't lose Mikey. He wasn't strong enough. He couldn't possibly loose both of his brothers he same day. He would go insane. Mikey's chest roe up and down slightly. This was agony, death had entered the lair and was getting settled in. It was only a matter of time before Mikey would learn the truth.

Finally after hours of silence, which really felt like years Mikey stirred. Raph was up by his side in a moment.

Mikey cracked an eye ope and whispered in a weak voice "Raphie..Raph is that you?"

Raph clutched his hand in his own and replied "Yeah its me I'm right here." He quickly turned his head to call for Leo and Master Splinter.

"Raph it hurts, it hurts so much" Mikey whispered, Raph winched.

"Mikey..." Raph started, Leo and Master Splinter rushed in.

"It hurts... that you're so dang gullible!" he laughed suddenly and sat up. "Ow" he cringed but smiled nonetheless. Then quickly covered his head with his arms fully expecting an angry slap to come his way, but it didn't.

"Yeah, yeah good job Mike you got me, you fooled me real well." Raph said softly.

Mikey gave him a confused look "Did you just call my prank a good one?" he searched the faces of his family "Did you guys hear that, get Don in here cuz either Raph needs a checkup or I do!"

Everyone cringed at my name. Mikey looked around at the sudden silence "What?" he asked impatiently "We did find Donnie... right?"

Raph turned to hide his tears and Master splinter left the room. Leo took a deep breath. This was torture worse that he had ever or will ever experience.

"We didn't find anything Mike, Don's dead." He felt like he wasn't only telling Mikey but himself, he was making it official.

Tears were now inevitable. He turned and ran to his room. There way no way he would cry in front of Mikey, it would make him look weak, he couldn't handle that.

But he had left Mikey in an hour of darkness. When he needed us most none of us were there. Well I was, sitting on his bed, but he couldn't see me. He could never see me. I tried to stroke the top of his head but my hand phased right through it.

Touch, I wanted to feel more then anything. It was a long lost sense that I missed the most.

Mikey sat alone in shock. Trying to make sense of what just happened. Was he still asleep and just suffering from a terrible dream? The pain left his body and his stomach started to swirl. Don dead? He couldn't make any sense of it.

* * *

When I discovered Raph's center I have to admit, I was a little hesitant to go in. This was where all he's secrets were, and his feelings, he's fears everything about him. I felt like he deserved to have this portion private.

But that night I had to go in. My entire family believed I was dead at that point. My entire family was going to give up on me and forget me, forever. I couldn't let that happen.

So that night I went into Raph's room and found myself surrounded by fog. I couldn't see anything, except the bars of my cage. I panicked, this wasn't right, I wasn't even in the in between, where was I and why was I still trapped?

"Hello?"

I froze, Raph. "Hello?"

His voice was the most beautiful sound I ever heard. And even though I knew he wouldn't answer I yelled "Raph!"

A pause, a silent pause and then "Donnie?"

I could have cried, he heard me, my brother finally heard me. "Donnie is that you?"

"RAPH!" I screamed.

He came out of the fog and widened his eyes. "Donnie!" he ran towards me.

After weeks of not seeing me, I must have looked awful. I had been tortured by the Shredder in the in between. Whenever he was bored he came to visit me. He tested his dark energy on me on practiced his most deadly attacks. He left many scars. I guessed Raph could see them from the way he was looking at me.

"Don what what..." he could hardly speak.

I couldn't speak either. I was so weak, it took all my energy to be here. There also was just so much to say. I missed my brother so much, more then I could ever imagine. Seeing him was relief like pouring like giving water on a nasty burn. I wanted to say this and so much more but I remembered the reason I came.

"I'm not dead Raph" I said, my voice sounded like a distant howl.

"Then where are ya bro?" Raph asked.

"I'm not dead Raph" it was all I could say. I reached for him, but the bars prevented me from doing so.

"Hold on bro I'm gonna get you outta here." he tried to cut though the bars with his sai.

"I'm in a cell without a key" I said.

"Don..." I put my hands as far through the bars as I could.

Raph reached for them, my dead heart was suddenly given life again. Finally a touch a feeling other then pain. But my hands went right through his. Even here with the infinite possibilities of a dream I could still not touch my brother. Because it was only a dream, it could reunite life and death but only as an illusion. Everything had limits.

I gave Raph a pained and lost expression. I was more alone then ever and he finally understood that. His face matched mine. That's when the dream ended.

* * *

Mikey turned over. Even though it hurt, he wanted to find just a comfortable position. He couldn't sleep. He couldn't even get his mind off of me. After another turn he decided that comfort had nothing to do with it, he was not getting any sleep tonight. Who could sleep after they had just lost their brother forever?

He wasn't allowed to leave the room. It was one of the last things his family said to him before they left to grieve. Raph was very upset but he had been falling asleep waiting for Mikey to wake up. Mike was jealous that his brother could rest peacefully and he couldn't. He had just heard someone in my lab and guessed it was Leo.

Finally he couldn't take it anymore. He got out of bed and stalked out of the lair without a sound.

He could barely feel the slimy waters as he trudged though the sewers. He stomach was stinging but he could no longer fee physical pain. His mind could only focus on the single word death.

Death was not something he encountered very often. But what did death really mean? He had lost friends before. He hadn't seen or talked to them since. Death. Is that what would happen with me? He'll never wake up to me in my lab. He would never again stay up watching scary movies with me as I did some kind of project. He would never see one of my creations again. He would never see me smile again or hear my voice or the swish of my bo at practice. Never. How long was that.

Now that question made his stomach twist like a pretzel. He was thankful when he finally got to the cove.

It was the sewer entrance into the Hudson river. A nice jagged cliff was towering above sea level and then entrance was hidden beneath the waves.

The waters were calm tonight, he noticed as he swam out into river. It took him no more then a few seconds to find a ledge that overlooked the river and kept hidden from the lights of the city. He climbed it, despite his scar and made himself comfortable. I was not to pleased watching him, I would have rathered him get some rest for the wound.

This was his favorite place to come out and think, contrary to the rest of us whose place was mainly rooftops. The moon was full and high in the sky. Soft waves crashed on the rocks and sand. He loved this little cove.

Each sound somehow managed to bring another memory of me.

Even though he didn't know it I was with him. On the other side. Not of the river but of the universe. I was sitting next to him also looking at the waves. It was as if we were on diffrent sides of a mirror almost. We were on different sides of a line that could never be defined. The most complex difference of the universe, life and death was suddenly so simple as we sat here. As if the waves brought us here. And every memory managed to bring us closer then we ever were alive.

This was the second time I came down to Earth. This time it wasn't purposely, I was sort of pulled down here and I appeared kind of like a ghost.

I appeared in the water. I couldn't feel it of course but when I looked down I discovered why I was pulled down to Earth. There floating softly on the banks was my mask. The color was a little faded from the excessive time in the water and had a clean cut from the night I was killed.

Mikey needed this, my family needed this. They needed something. This was probably they only thing left.

"Mikey!" I yelled. My voice was howled again, like the wind. But it caught his attention.

"Don?" he yelled. And then he saw me, relief flooded over him "Don!"

He ran, faster then ever his hopes higher then they had ever been. "Don I knew you weren't dead I knew..."

When he finally got close enough to see me he realized I wasn't what was normally defined alive.

"Oh." he said looking me over. I was just mist my features were slight and hardly noticeable. But I was smiling, he noticed that and smiled back. Or made an effort to, it wasn't easy to see me like this.

This moment together was something we both needed, longed for and was greater then anything imaginable.

Then I looked over to where the mask was. Mikey saw it and quickly fished it out of the river. A smile on his face. He turned around to show me, but I had disappeared.

His smile vanished and he clutched my mask tightly.

* * *

Leo looked up from meditation when Mikey slammed the door of the lair.

"Mikey..." he could hardly start before Mikey dropped my mask on his lap and disappeared in his room.

* * *

_When I opened my eyes I was on the bottom of the stair_ case. _Cuts were all over my skin. I gasped when I realized I had done that to myself with a sai._

_"Don?" Leo's voice rang from upstairs. I couldn't take it anymore, I was going insane. I got up and ran out of the lair, the sewers as fast as I could. I had to get away._

_Chaos, normal hate love they were controlling my life. I couldn't tell my family for a reason I did not know. I was suffocating even though I was surrounded by air. When finally stopped running I was surrounded by purple dragons._

_

* * *

_**AUTHOR'S NOTE- **Finally over! LOL this is the longest a chapter's gonna get, promise, though some will come close. Anyway u readers know the drill every question, comment, lawsuit for my story is submitted to a review_.  
_


	10. Memorial

**AUTHOR'S NOTE- **Well guys we are almost halfway through the story. It's hard to say when the exact halfway point is. Anyway in this chapter Leo main seem a bit like an antagonist, going back myself and reading it, but that's not what I intend at all. I want to express that each of the turtles make mistakes and they all learn from them. I felt like expressing that that for any Leo fans reading this, and I personally hate when my favorite turtle is an antagonist in the story.

**DISCLAIMER- **A long time ago two hopeless comic book writers put four random words together and got a hit, I was not one of those comic book writers._  


* * *

I looked all around me. One second I was running the next surrounded by enemies._

_"Well look who joined the party." A cocky dragon snickered, probably the leader._

_As I study the area further I realized it was a robbery of petroleum. They had probably stole it from New Jersey and were stuffing their headquarters._

_Instinctively I got out my bo but I was shacking madly. The purple dragons smirked, I could read minds, this would be a short fight._

_They attacked all at once. Blows came from each direction. I couldn't block one. In a matter of seconds __I was panting on the ground, my bo to far away._

_I recognized the dream immediately only this time it was real... right? A purple dragon came with a pipe in his hands ready to knock me out._

_"No," the leader said and then smirked. "These freaks have been a pain in our butt for the last few years, it's time to end this." With that he pulled out a gun and aimed it at my scared face. I shut my eyes and in a way I was kind of looking forward to the sound of the trigger._

_

* * *

_

It was never very pleasant in the inbetween, but not very boring either. I got to see many souls go where their previous choices had left them.

One of the most interesting ones I witnessed was Bishops. His soul had a sort of red vibe to it as left Earth and joined the others. I figured this was because he had defined death so man_y _times.

Anyways it was very predictable that he went to the underworld. As he neared the entrance a flame rose up from it and sort of engulfed him. His screams shook my bars. I didn't think it was Hell he did fear but failing, being defeated by now his most hated enemy. But that didn't matter anymore. He was gone forever and since he didn't leave a legacy his memory vanished and it was as if he was never born.

I had many nightmares the same would happen to me.

* * *

Raph stormed out of his room in a full out panic.

"Wake up! Everybody wake up!" His yells echoed through the sewers.

Nobody really got any sleep that night but everyone did come out grouchy.

"What is it Raph?" Leo asked mono toned.

"It's Don! He's alive I saw him!"

Everyone perked up instantly.

"You did!"Mikey said cried "Me too I saw him last night on the beach!"

"Wait wait wait you guys saw Don at the beach?" Leo inquired trying to make sense of his little brothers.

"I saw him in a dream." Raph emitted, his voice didn't lose hope. But Leo's face fell.

"Raph," he said softly "Just because you saw him in a dream it doesn't mean... he's alive."

"But but he said I'm not dead, those exact words I swear. You believe me right Master Splinter."

The tired old rat cast his look to the floor then to his son. "Sometimes when someone you love is gone forever, your mind creates illusions of them to soften the pain. But no matter how real they feel its just that, a dream."

"but..".

"I know this my son because I went through the same with Master Yoshi, I saw him every night in my dreams, but he was never really there. Grieving has many cruel tricks."

"You don't understand he_ told _me he wasn't dead. Did Yoshi ever tell ya that?" Raph demanded despite himself.

Master Splinter just sighed and stared at the floor.

"Sides Mike saw him too so I'm not crazy." Raph declared.

He turned to Mikey. "Right Mike, tell us what happened."

Mikey looked down. "Nevermind it was just my mind playing tricks on me, I saw nothing Don's dead."

So that was what my brother thought of me, nothing.

Raph was enraged. "HOW CAN YOU SAY THAT! ITS LIKE YOUR GIVIN UP ON HIM!"

"We're not giving up on him Raph we're just accepting his fate, hes gone time to move on." Leo said in a firm but calm voice.

"Oh so that's it. How would you feel if you were getting tortured and all the cries for help you sent were ignored because your brothers gave up on you!"

"We don't have a choice Raph! He's gone its out of our hands! We can't drive ourselves insane thinking he is still out there!"

"But he is still out there! Why can't you believe me?"

"Because in case you haven't noticed Raph your not the spiritual one here and if Master Splinter or I didn't feel it then it's not true!" Leo was really getting angry now.

"Oh so if someone else had the dream it would be different huh?"

"NO! Master Splinter said he was gone! Are you calling him a liar."

"NO but he's wrong!"

"HOW DARE YOU DEFY OUR MASTER! If he is wrong it's not you place to tell him!"

Raph scowled then turned to walk away.

"Where are you going!" Leo demanded after him.

"Out!" came the livid reply. Then Raph stormed out the lair.

Leo was just about to go after him when Mikey stopped him.

"He just needs to blow off some steam."

"Do you want to lose another brother?" Leo snapped.

"No that's why we need to let him go." Mikey's eyes shone and Leo sighed and turned to try and mediate.

* * *

Over the weeks Raph continued his search through the entire city for me. Though he never checked the river, I was thankful for that.

There are two ways to look at life, spiritually and scientifically. Depending on how you were raised you can go either way. I used to look at everything logically. To me a soul was just brain patterns and once it stopped working it was non extintant.

Well if my death was looked at scientifically then it probably would have observed my body at the bottom of the river. I was covered in sand and the shurikan was still sticking out of my head. My eyes were closed as was my mouth. And other then the weapon sticking out it looked as if I was sleeping.

Over the course of many many weeks my body went through the deceasing cycle. It was the part of the circle of life where I returned everything I took back into the Earth where it would be used again and again. Spiritually and scientific views both have different views of this ever continuing cycle.

My body was devoured by tiny plankton Which believe me was not easy to watch. Then those plankton were eaten by by slightly bigger fish. Then those fish were fished out of the river and sent over the city.

When my little brother ordered a large anchovies pizza despite his hatred to it, was when scientifically I returned home.

He ordered it to ease the tension of our family. Usually he had first choice on the pizza toppings and he never ordered the vial fish. But he figured to give it a try if it would bring his brothers together. Besides so many years had passed since he last had it, maybe he would change his mind.

Sadly when he called our brothers in they harshly rejected him. And after one bite of pizza Mikey immediately remembered why he hated it. The rest was thrown out. I stopped following the cycle at that point. Scientifically that was my end.

* * *

In the week that followed the day my brothers declared me dead was my memorial.

Leo stood in front of an old cracked mirror and tightened his tie. We usually hated wearing tuxedos but Leo figured he would look nice for the day he honored me. So they called Apil and she had three handsome tuxes prepared. I wished they had just simply gone how they normally looked. They weren't themselves dressed up.

Leo turned when he heard clanking plates coming from the kitchen. When he came to investigate it was Mikey attempting to get food prepared for all the guests.

"Careful Mike don't get the suit dirty, its a rental."

Mikey looked at him and shrugged. "Well don't just stand there help me put these out."

They decided to have my funeral at the lair. After all that's the only place most of the guests could be seen in New York.

As they were working Leo scoped the room for Raph.

"Where's Raph? He should be helping to." he asked.

"In his room, where else?" Mikey replied.

"Hold on I'll go get him." Leo sighed.

He knocked on the door and wasn't surprised when there wasn't an answer. He barged in anyway.

He was shocked to see Raph still in his hammock.

"What are you doing the memorials in an hour!" he hissed.

"I'm not goin." Raph replied simply.

This shocked Leo completely "Wh-what do you mean you aren't going?"

"I don't see the point of going to the memorial of someone who isn't dead." he said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

Leo quickly got enraged "This is your brother's memorial and more importantly a to honor him! And you chose to just lie here!Where's the honor in that Raph where's the..."

"Leonardo." A firm voice came from behind.

Master Splinter came to his son and put a hand on his shoulder. He was dressed in his master Yoshi's old robes. Something he swore he'd never do but now it seemed right.

"If Raphael doesn't want to go then you can't make him. No one is required to attend this."

"But..."

"End of discussion." he turned to leave.

Leo gave Raph a disgusted look and left as well.

* * *

No one would have predicted that so many people would attend a teenage mutant ninja turtle's funeral but they did. Almost all of our allies from across the universe came.

Of course Casey and April arrived first.

As soon as she saw Leo April ran to embrace him in a comforting hug. "Leo I am so sorry about Donatello! I know how you feel. I also feel like I lost a brother." tears came down her face, she really meant it.

Leo pulled away from the hug. "I didn't lose a brother," he declared simply "I lost a part of myself."

I didn't feel to comfortable watching the ceremony. Your funeral was something you had no right to watch, but I couldn't pull myself away.

"Hey where's Raph?" Casey asked searching the room.

Mikey anwsered before Leo could say anything "He's not coming."

Casey decided to leave it at that.

Soon enough all the guest arrived and shared their condolences.

Professor Honeycutt approached Mikey. "I am so very sorry for you lose you brother Donatello was a great being and a genius..."

"Please," Mikey interrupted "tell me something I don't know."

"If anyone would like to say a few words for Donatello now would be the time." Leatherhead announced. No one stood up. All of them had speeches planned out but now nothing seemed worthy.

Master Splinter nudged Leo. Leo gave up a pained look but went up anyway.

"Hey everyone I would first like to thank you all for coming. It means a lot to us and you are showing great honor to our brother. Now I'm not going to go off on some speech saying how smart, clever and giving my brother was. You know that, that's why your all here. I am going to say this, you knew him as a person, I had the pleasure of knowing him as a brother. What that means is that I knew everything about him. I knew his dark side, mostly in the morning. His determination and well some lack of self confidence. I knew he spent most of his time off in his own little world and sometimes he would expect everyone to be with him. But I also knew what a truly amazing turtle he was with out trying. He had this incredible imagination, ever since he was little. And this belief that nothing., nothing was impossible. He had this drive and even though he wasn't as quick to pick up on training he made up for it with his imagination. He was one of the best mechanics who ever lived even though he came up in the sewers. But that not the only amazing thing about my brother. He could forgive you, no matter what you did to him he'd never get mad. He would try to work something out peacefully. Fighting was never his first instinct. Which is a hard trait to have living with three with stubborn brothers. The lair is sure going yo be different without him," Leo gulped "But I think we can get through this, for Donnie. Thank you." with that he walked off to the crowd.

Mikey was next. "Wow I don't think I can top that. But I can say this, I'm not gonna remember my bro for being a genius. I gonna remember him for what Leo said, for being my brother. An I'm gonna remember all the things he did for me, like fix my skateboard and stay up with me and not get mad for breaking something and rolling his eyes at my jokes and letting me test his inventions and without knowing it he made me feel like I wasn't a total loser. I'm nothing compared to my brothers and I know that, but he helped throuh it and didn't rub it ion my face. He listened to me and I'm really gonna miss that." he stopped there he couldn't continue.

Master Splinter was last. "Master Yoshi was a father towards me, he taught me ninjustsui and honor. I had loved and respected him. And when I lost him I felt pain like no other. The only good part was that I would never feel a worse pain. Or so I thought. Losing my son is by far the most painful lose I could ever go though," he was now crying "Because I was the one who raised him. I found him helpless in the sewer waters and brought him home. I taught him everything, I watched him grow up. I saw the transformation from a little turtle to a terrific mechanic, he and his brothers were my greatest joy. I loved them so much, after I swore I would never love again. They taught me beauty of life and helped me move on but now... If there i a greater pain then losing a son then I fear I cannot handle it. I prided myself for being a master but now... I want to a father again a father of four."

* * *

_I never heard the trigger of the gun. Instead I heard a shout of rage followed by one of pain. When I looked up I saw my brothers_ fearlessly attacking the dragons. _I tried to raise myself off the floor but needed my bo to stand._

_My brothers were quickly outnumbered and overwhelmed, but I couldn't help them. Just like the dream. Except this time I didn't run I stood still which was worse._

_

* * *

_**AUTHOR'S NOTE- **Well this was defiantly one of the more emotional chapters. I hope the speeches weren't to sappy. And am I the only writer here who thinks that turtles look ridiculous in a tux? Review if you agree._  
_


	11. The Warning

**AUTHOR'S NOTE- **Yea okay, I got kinda lazy with this chapter.

**DISCLAIMER- **If I ever get the rights to TMNT, i'll let you guys know first, but until that happens I own nothing.

_

* * *

I was helpless to help any of my brothers. Just like the nightmare I was having for so long. Was this inevitable? Was my dream trying to tell me something? _

_There was no moon in the sky that night. There were plenty of gunshots though, and screams of pain. Mostly coming from my brothers. I was to weak to stand and I think one of my bones were broken. My leg would not stop throbbing. _

_Suddenly a metal pipe collided with my head and I fell instantly. I barely felt the concert slam into my already beating head. I heard a voice, I think it was my name and the entire scene started to spin around. I tried to get up but I didn't know which way was up. The cuts I had given myself were now gushing out blood. _

_ I felt like I was watching a spinning vortex with screams of pain coming from all around me. _

_I heard a voice, it was first a whisper then it grew louder. "How the shell could you just abandon us like that?" it repeated itself over and over again._

_"No! NO!" I screamed. The voice alone was suffocating me._

_"NO!" _

_A rush of adrenaline came rushing through my body. I forced my arms to hold me up. They were shaking from holding so much dead weight. _

_I looked around furiously. If I was not able to help my brothers with ninjustu then I could help them with my mind._

_All there was was plenty of scattered guns and oil barrels... oil._

_I crawled to one of the guns and loaded the bullets then made my way to a barrel._

_"Mikey!" I whipped around at the sound. My brother was being held against the wall and a dragon was furiously reloading his gun._

_I toppled the barrel with my bo and unscrewed the lid. Oil came gushing out and got all over me. _

_I soaked the gun in oil when I heard the dragon taking aim at m brother by their screams I could tell Leo and Raph couldn't do anything._

_Fire all I needed was fire. I looked around madly and until I realized what I was holding. I snapped my bo in half without thinking and rubbed the two pieces together._

_"Nighty night freak!" The dragon put his finger on the trigger._

_The gun lite on fire and I quickly tied my purple cloth around the trigger, making it fire exploding bullets everywhere. I hurled it at the dragons and screamed "MIKEY DUCK!"_

_I could hardly see the scene play out. There was an explosion, intense heat screams were everywhere. One second everything was chaotic then it started settling down. My eyes weighed 1000 pounds. Soon blackness over came me._

_

* * *

_

All Doctor Chapmin wanted to do was use the restroom. He had climbed down 42 floors and couldn't find one. He had asked several of the employees, but of course they were foot. They only anwsered to the Shredder.

He was down to the basement now panting madly. _What idiot designer forgets to put a bathroom in an office building? _he thought.

But the new foot head quarters was far from finished. Thanks to Stockman, it was a year behind schedule.

The basement was the only original part of the warehouse. And Chapmin predicted it would be falling soon. Those idiot construction workers didn't build on a very high foundation.

That was when he saw the door. A huge rusty metal door that was locked up with powerful locks.

Forgetting his pee Chapmin eagerly examined the door. There was a password indication. Chapmin smiled, if there was one thing he knew how to do it was hack computer. He turned and ran to get his hacker.

I panicked, that door was my door. If he found out the password Shredder could take over New York. Or worse he could take over the...

I was panicking in the inbetween. The events to the future were starting to unfold. One disaster leading to another. My brothers deaths.

I couldn't do anything to stop it. All of this was my fault and all I could do was watch. That dream, was this it's true intention? The dream that haunted me for several weeks. My family was in trouble and all I could do was helplessly watch?

Chapmin came running back down to the basement and started working on the password. I could no longer watch. If I couldn't do anything then I would have to warn my brother. I ran into Raph's room.

* * *

Raph was in his room staring at the ceiling. Trying to clear his mind but he was to distracted by the silence. No one had talked much since the memorial, and that was a month ago.

Today was a special day for Raph, me too. Our 20th birthday.

When we were little Master Splinter decided that we needed birthdays. And considering we shared everything else he decided to give us each our own dates. So he put the 365 days in a hat and had us draw out of them.

Leo had drawn first and got January 2nd. In our standards that what made him the oldest. (Though technically we're all the same age.) Mikey was next and he drew June 3rd. Then I went and got March 3rd.

Finally Raph went and drew out March 3rd as well. He immediately ripped it up and threw it to the side and gave me an angry glare. There was no way he would share a birthday. He drew again and got the same date. He threw Master Splinter a confused glance and the old rat returned it and inspected the hat. Once he was sure that no other March 3rds were in there Raph drew again. March 3rd.

That time we agreed to share a birthday. It was a weird day at the Hamato lair.

Now each of us had different ways of celebrating our birthday. On our special day Master Splinter let us have a cake of our choice, we could do what ever training exercise we wanted, and have our choice dinner.

Leo's birthday was the worst. (Mikey, Raph and I declared this behind his back). We would spend the entire day in mediation. By the end of the day I couldn't feel my legs. We had to sit quietly for endless hours. This was absolute torture for poor Mikey. Then when it finally ended we would have Leo's favorite dinner, dashi. It's a Japanese dish, mostly made of raw tuna and covered with vegetables. If anyone ever wanted to try raw sewage water as a food dashi was as close as they would get. The only thing worse then the dashi was the cake, it was rice cake decorated with seaweed. Now usually it's made with fresh seaweed, unfortunately in the sewer all we could find was moldy dead seaweed. Sometimes I thought Leo just chose that dish to torture us.

Mikey's birthday was a lot more preferable. We spent the entire day practicing stealth, in other words hide and seek. This was only because he couldn't chose to play video games, or read comic books. It was obvious that Leo was the best at this (he was best at every training exercise) but since it was Mikey's day he'd usually let him win. Dinner was of course pizza, covered in pineapple, pepperoni and just about every other topping except anchovies. His cake of choice was surprisingly vanilla contrary to his wild personality.

Now Raph and I could never agree on a training exercise, he always wanted to do hand to hand combat and I wanted to practice strategy. When Master Splinter got sick of hearing us argue he let us take the day off.

It was really hard to share a birthday with Raph because we were polar opposites. But we finally came to terms. I let Raph choose the dinner and cake while I got a big banner that read 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY DON AND RAPH' It was my name first or no deal. When i declared this I got weird looks from all of my family, but that didn't change anything. I didn't know whI wanted it either. It was, well when I looked at the banner I felt something I didn't feel all the rest of the year. Importance? Special? I don't know. I don't even know if I liked yhe feeling but my birthday wasn't the same without it.

When Raph was weary about this I made him sure that if I chose the cake it would be his least favorite flavor, strawberry. So that's how it worked for the last 9 years. Mikey would make Raph's favorite triple chocolate cake, Master Splinter would somehow manage to serve a steak and Leo would make my banner.

We were all looking forward to our 20th birthday. Every ten years Splinter promoted our ninja statist. On our tenth we got weapons and on Leo's 20th he was done with training. Meaning in ten more years we would have became ninja masters.

We had this calender marking down the days. This day was suppost to be so great for us was ruined, by me, my death.

Earlier that morning Mikey had made the biggest cake he'd ever done. He had put extra chocolate everywhere he could. By the time he was finished he was covered in flour.

When Raph had come out of his room he presented it to him as proudly as he could manage. Raph was silent when he slowly looked over the cake.

After a few seconds Mikey couldn't stand it anymore. "Please I know things have been tough but just..."

"We need a banner." he mumbled. Mikey paused he didn't think he heard right.

"The deal was the I would get the flavor if Don," he chocked out my name "Could get his banner."

Mikey smiled softly. "I'll get Leo right on it."

Of course Leo had agreed. He had made the biggest and most beautiful banner then ever before. The only problem was he put my name on it out of force of habit. But Raph adored it, and for a second, just a second there was a smile on everyone's face.

That ended when Master Splinter came in. He took one look and the banner and ran back in his room in tears. In an hour's time the banner was taken down and the cake left for anyone who wanted it, which no one did.

In his room Raph was just counting the cracks on the ceiling until he heard me.

"Raph!"

He jumped up and looked around madly "Don! Where are you bro?"

"Shredder"

"What?"

"Shredder"

"What what about im?"

"Must stop"

"B-but he's dead?"

Nothing. Raph gulped. "Donnie who did this to you?"

A long pause "Shredder"

* * *

Raph and I were completely connected. I lead him through the roof tops to the new head quarters.

"Don whats the plan? Revenge?" he said hatred in his voice.

"Just look," I replied. Raph remained quiet for awhile then whispered.

"The others think your dead,"

"I know"

"How?"

"I'm always watching."

Raph stopped in mid track.

"Come on," I urged.

"Are you...you gone?"

"...No"

We got to the base in record time.

"Do not be seen." I warned.

To my horror the Foot had broken into my storage and were unloading all the weapons out, weapons that would be used to take over the world.

"What are they doin Don?" Raph asked carefully.

A long pause.

"Don?"

"Planning, for world domination."

* * *

_When I woke up I was greeted by many blurs of disoriented color. Concussion, I thought immediately._

_A voice, many voices that were calm and welcoming were all around me. I tried to open my eyes, but shut them immediately once a bright light shone into them. I groaned._

_"Don? Don are you okay?" I finally could recognize the voice._

_I turned my throbbing head and forced my eyes open. _

_Leo was right there standing behind him were the rest of my family. I hated to be the center of attention and tried to sit up, I fell back down instantly._

_"Whoa, whoa easy Don don't hurt yourself." Leo tried to relax me._

_Raph was mad, his teeth were grinding and his fist was clinched._

_"Want some water?" Leo asked._

_I could not speak, but my throat was on fire. I made an approving grunt._

_Finally Raph couldn't take it. "What were you thinkin? Running straight into the purple dragons head quarters like that? Do you have a death wish?"_

_"Raph!" Leo yelled. "He just woke up don't pressure him."_

_"He coulda been killed!"_

_"We have to wait until he's ready to tell us."_

_I felt like I wasn't even there, I couldn't tell the truth even after all that I couldn't force it out of my mouth._

_I instead lied. "I accidentally gave the Dragons the address to the oil, I wanted to stop them before it was to late."_

_"What? why?" Raph demanded._

_"One of them called me and tricked me, I promise it won't happen again."_

_"Why didn't you just tell us?" Leo asked._

_"I thought you'd get mad."_

_He gave me a suspicions look "I thought you knew better then that."_

_"I'm sorry it won't happen again."_

_"Hey c'mon guys everyone's alright and the dragons were stopped no harm done." Mikey said._

_"Mikey are you okay?" I asked suddenly remembering the gun._

_"Oh yea thanks to you. That was quiet some light show you put on bro."_

_He and the others left me at that. But what they didn't know was that they had just solved my problem. I knew of a way I could protect my family now and prevent the future from ever happening again. I would make weapons they could protect themselves with. And if something ever happened to me they could protect themselves._

_For all that time that's what my life was about, weapons._

_Ironic? Isn't it?_

_

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTE- **_Yahhh! Done with the Flashback, now we know the orgins of the weapons, but how did the Shredder use them to take over the world? There's only one way to find out, READ the next chapter! And as always ReViEw!_  
_


	12. Capture

**AUTHOR'S NOTE- **Hey yall, me again. So I was watching the Lovely Bones again on Friday and I thought to myself, did I make this story tragic enough? Were the turtles sad enough about losing Don? Then when I read it over it's too Sappy! I am a new writer here and I have to ask you Veterans... is this normal? Or am I just losing my mind? On something relating this story, the first view of Casey and April, yea I know not majors in the plot, but who cares? They are people who loved Don and have to adjust their lives around his absence. I would have mentioned them earlier but... the chapters were already very long... right?

**DISCLAIMER- **I didn't invent microwave popcorn, therefor I do not own Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

* * *

Casey felt like he had entered a brand new dimension. Everything in his life was back words. His friends, who were once as close as brothers to him were complete strangers now. He hadn't talked to Raph since... he couldn't remember.

He worked two jobs now. He had to pay the store rent since April didn't work anymore. Instead she spent all of her time looking for my murder, or my body anything. I wished she would just drop it. I couldn't enter her center either. I believed once it was opened, when I was alive but the stress and sorrow closed it. She was a completely different person now.

Casey stumbled through the door with a lot more groceries then he could carry. He was greeted by the familiar sight of April slumped over her computer, typing away.

"Any luck yet?" he asked hopefully.

Silence was his reply.

"Guess not." He mumbled.

He hated this, he hated it so much. It was as if he were living at a funeral. Sorrow and depression was everywhere. There was no hope. And Casey was the kind of person who needed hope. Hope was the reason he could fight and fighting well he couldn't go long with out fighting for his beliefs. If he didn't he'd get really angry. To fight he needed something to fight for, but there was nothing anymore.

There had been only one other time in his life where he had to suffer through such despair. When his father was killed. His parents that meant the world to him slowly faded away that night. And when his father was completely gone, his mother suffered. He couldn't stand to see her like that. He couldn't do anything to fix it.

So he ran away. To the streets, the gangs, the cold any where but there. He needed hope. He would never be able to handle being in that kind of depression.

What was so foolish of him was that he thought he could escape that sorrow, by coming to New York and meeting April and us. He thought he'd never go through that again. When he figured out that he was wrong, was when he also realized the second time was much much worse.

He went to bed every night thinking, _It's only get to get better, it can't get any worse. _He refused to give up that thought. He refused to stop fighting, to lower himself.

But despite his efforts, slowly he was losing himself, his courage and his hope. Slowly he was losing to grief and despair.

* * *

Raph ran as fast as he possibly could to the lair. He was hardly stealthily and I bet if someone had just looked up our cover would have been blown.

But neither one of us were thinking that then. All we were thinking about was stopping the foot.

In the inbetween I had realized a way my brothers could save me. If they could just murder the Shredder before he murdered me then none of this would ever happen. But of course that brought up many more questions. If none of this ever happened then I would never died, and my brothers would never had killed the Shredder, which means he would come back and murder me again. I drove myself crazy thinking about that.

We reached the lair in what had seemed like a thousand years later.

Leo was waiting by the entrance and not happy at all. "Where have you been? I called your cell shell ten times and got no answer!"

"No time for that." Raph panted "The-the Shredder is back and he's gonna t-take over the world! We have to stop him c'mon!"

Leo gave him a confused look. "Are you out of your mind? The Shredder was banished to some asteroid deep in space!"

"Look I don't know how but he is so okay!"

"And how do you know to look for him?"

Raph looked down "Don told me."

Leo gave him an eyebrow "Oh yea in a dream?"

"No this time he spoke to me when I was awake! He's here right now! Don say something!"

Nothing. I couldn't say anything that Leo would hear.

"Don! Don! Donnie!" Raph yelled in the air.

"Quit it Raph! Your yelling to thin air!"

"But he's here, he's always here, he told me he was watching, DON!" He yelled louder.

"QUIT IT!" Leo screamed over him. "Can't you see what your doing? Your making it harder for all of us to move on! Don's dead will you stop this stage of denial?"

"He's not dead! Whatever happened to him Shredder did it and I'm going to stop him with or without your help!" he started to storm out the entrance.

"Your not going anywhere!" Leo jumped in his way.

"Who's gonna stop me?" Raph asked very cocky.

"I will, I'm not about to just stand back and watch another one of my brothers get killed!"

Raph was silent. Leo kept a determined glare on his face. Raph just turned and walked to his room.

* * *

Raph laid silently on his hammock. He had been mad at Leo before but never this mad. Leo was treating him like an idiot, he never listened. Come to think of it he never actually remembered a time when Leo did listen.

"Raph!" I howled.

Raph perked up. "Don?"

"I'm here Raph."

"Yea now, where were you when I needed you out there? You made me look like a complete idiot!"

"They can't hear me Raph,"

"What? Why not?"

"I can't reach them, they have walls."

"Walls? What walls and what do you mean walls?"

"Must get rid of them."

"Don Leo won't listen to me! He won't help me our plan..."

"That will not stop us, just you and me, we can take on the Shredder."

"You have a plan?"

"Something like like that, sneak out,"

Raph grunted his approval.

* * *

It was the dead of night. Raph had waited with anticipation for everyone to fall asleep. But he knew getting passed Leo would be tricky.

He slept in a chair in the living room ever since I first disappeared. He'd never admit it but he still had this hope that one of these nights I would try and sneak back into the lair. I would finally come home from the dumpster.

He had had this dream so many times. He was always awoken by a creak of the door opening. He would open his eyes and I would be grinning sheepishly. Then I would madly be apologizing for being so late. He would lecture me about being responsible and help me to my lab.

"You shouldn't have worried us like that." He would always look me straight in the eye and say.

He woke up before I could ever respond.

Raph easily crept out of the lair. Leo was sound asleep. And when he heard the door creak as Raph went out, he thought I came in. A smile was on his face. Raph didn't see it, I did.

* * *

Raph was hardly breathing as he hid behind a nearby roof that over looked the Foot building. It was once again a cloudy night. And the lights of the city didn't reach this edge of town. Years of stealth training made him one with the shadows.

The foot building's like shone like s star. Construction was going on 24/7. There were hundreds of workers 40 levels below Raph unloading my weapons, and scientist were studying others.

I was so mad I didn't even want to plan up in the inbetween They were stealing my weapons, using them against my family. I was mad at myself too. I had a storage of deadly weapons the least I could do was put some massive security on it. I guess I just figured no one would ever try to find them, except my family. Only then did I see how foolish my plan was. There were so many flaws going over them, that dented whatever pride I had left.

It wasn't fair to make Raph do this, I knew it wasn't. That was my battle, my fault. Something between me and the Shredder, not Raph. If Raph got hurt it was my fault.

But at that moment I wasn't thinking that. I thought my brother as a weapon, to barge into the head quarters and avenge my name. He would amazing, nothing would stop him, the foot would never had seen anything like it.

"How do I get in?" He asked. Venom dripped from his voice. He wanted to murder anyone who came in contact with.

"Back entrance," I replied.

He nodded and slipped down a nearby fire escape. On the ground he avoid all light from the building and stuck to the shadow. He moved hastily and gracefully and maneuvered around the building. So far so good.

He went to the side walls of the building and felt for anything metal. Instead he felt a manhole beneath his feet.

"Go in," I urged.

He slipped in and jumped down the ladder. He landed in the dark waters and scoured the area.

"Don there's nothing here but concrete."

"Rub the walls."

Raph gave the sky a questioning look then did as told. He rubbed slimy walls until he found a keyboard. He wiped away all the sewer excess.

"Gattamelata." I told him.

"What?"

"Thats the password."

"Okay?"

It took him a couple of tries, but he finally manage to spell it correctly and the door unlocked.

He carefully crept in. He squinted his eyes at the new bright lights. Inside it was a storage room with hundreds of shelves that reached the ceiling, loaded with weapons.

Some were scrap others were perfectly functioning torture devices. He was a bit overwhelmed by this and stood still.

I heard someone round the corner.

"Someone's coming!" I hissed.

Raph looked around frantically for a place to hide, then started to climb the closest shelf. Two foot ninjas engaged in conversation walked below him. Suddenly one of them looked up.

"Hey!" he shouted.

Raph jumped in shock to a different position, but it ruined the balance of the shelf. Soon enough he was falling to the floor and a bunch of weapons came crashing on top of him.

He got up a little disoriented and looked around. All the ninjas were a defensive positions with their weapons aimed towards Raph. Raph slowly started to put his hands up.

"Don't surrender!" I ordered.

Raph nodded and immediately attacked the closest ninja. A frenzy of gunshot and bombs followed. My brother was on fire. He hopped onto one ninja and stabbed him and did the same to another. He came to one who dodged his tackle and sliced his arm with a sword. Raph hardly felt it and pierced a sai through his head.

He ran to another when he felt a bullet run though his other arm. He fell to the ground and saw the firer and another armed foot coming from both sides of him. He stood up and the gunners took aim. As soon as they fired he leaped out of the way and landed on the floor.

As soon as he did a sword came flying towards him. He rolled out of the way and grabbed the dueler's arm and hurled him to the shelf. He picked up the sword and stabbed the attacking ninja from behind.

Then he fell to his side when a bomb went off on his opposite one. He tried to get up when a ninja thrust a sword into his stomach. Raph winced in pain, but grabbed the ninja by his collar and stabbed him with a sai.

I was starting to panic. Raph was bleeding pretty badly and was hopelessly outnumbered.

Two gunners came behind him as he was beating a ninja and fired ballistically at him. Three bullets pierced into his skin, the rest caught in his shell before he found shelter under a fallen shelf. He panted to try and catch his breathe and ended up coughing out blood.

That did it for me. Coughing out blood meant an internal organ was hit.

"Raph! Get out of there!" I yelled, but he didn't hear me.

Instead in a scream of rage he grabbed his bloody sais and ran at the army. He stabbed everything the sais touched but got plenty of stabs as well. He screamed as angrily as he could, but now was doomed. Like a gazel in the mouth of a lion, there was no escape.

He tried to get up but now hundreds of bodies were on him keeping him down. He had lost so much blood he was losing conscious. Finally a final blow came to his chest and he lay motionless.

I screamed his name and the ninja kept mercilessly beating him.

"What's going on?" Shredder yelled.

The ninja cleared and the Shredder's eyes widened when he saw the beaten turtle motionless on the ground.

"Kill him in the jail." he ordered.

"NO! RAPH!" I screamed and screamed for my brother's life, but I was not heard.

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTE- **Was that a cliffhanger or what? Told you guys I'm mean...he he he. Ignore the spelling errors my peps, and drop me a review. I like them,they make me feel good.


	13. Escape

**AUTHOR'S NOTE- **Now for the exciting next part!

**DISCLAIMER- **Well if you just haven't paid attention to the other 12 times then I'll say it again, I do not own TMNT

* * *

"You shouldn't have worried us like that." Leo turned and said to me.

I looked him in the eyes and opened my mouth, but Master Splinter's voice came out "Leonardo."

Leo gave me a confused look. "Don?"

"Leonardo, my son wake up."

Leo closed his eyes. Once he opened them Splinter was hovering over him.

"Raphael is gone." Master Splinter said in a very worried tone.

Not even a thousand alarm clocks could wake Leo up like that. He leaped out of his chair and sped to Raph's room. He barged the door open and scoped the room. Nothing. He went inside and looked for a note or anything that would lead them to him.

Then he remembered, Shredder.

He ran out of Raph's room and shouted "MIKEY!"

* * *

The Foot ninja tightened the chain around Raph's wrist until they bled. I could feel them smiling under their masks.

I had never seen Raph like this, so defeated. He was chained against the wall by his wrist and ankles. Blood was seeping out of his mouth and other wounds. He looked helpless. He was helpless. He was dying. And it was all my fault.

Why didn't I just think before I had him barge in there like that? How could I think that he alone would be able to take on an entire army of soldiers. I waited for the immense guilt to settle in, but it didn't. I felt no guilt. In fact I thought I did the right thing.

I was angry. Now I wanted even more revenge on the ninjas. I wanted all of them to suffer. I wanted them, their leader, and everything in the warehouse destroyed. I felt like tearing the Shredder in two. When he came into the cell I clenched my imaginary teeth so hard they cracked.

He looked over Raph. "How did this turtle," he hissed the name "Know of our relocation?"

"We don't know sir," the ninja reply "We can ask him when he comes..."

"No!" Shredder yelled "He will not wake up, not ever. He was the reason I was executed to the asteroid! I want him to suffer like I did. Give him our slowest most lethal poison, I want him to die a slow and painful death."

The ninja nodded and prepared it. Now I was livid. "No! Let him go! Leave him alone! Raph!" I was shaking the bars so hard.

"In case you haven't noticed they can't hear you." a voice came. I swooped around to see one armed Mikey glaring at me with cracked old eyes.

"How can you just sit there? We have to do something!"

"We cannot interrupt the living. Haven't you learned that already? Raph wouldn't be in this mess if you had just moved on like we said!" Mikey yelled.

"I can't just sit here while my weapons are used to take over the world!"

"And so making Raph barge into the Foot building alone is gonna change anything?"

Future Leo and Raph appeared. I turned to them "Raph get out of there! Now!" he stayed quiet. But he started to fade.

My eyes widened "NO!" I shouted.

Down on Earth the ninja pierced the needle into Raph's skin. "RAPH!" I turned to run to his center.

"Those trips only make things worse." Leo warned for behind me.

I paused, but continued on. It was the only thing I could do.

* * *

Mikey and Leo studied the scene beneath them. The Foot were unloading the weapons and placing them in the warehouse.

"Whoa, I guess Raph was right dude. That's some pretty heavy toys." Mikey noticed.

"Raph's in there." Leo growled.

"How do you think he's doing?" Mikey asked worriedly.

"Knowing Raph he probably challenged the entire army." Leo hissed.

Leo clutched the last bomb I had ever made tightly in his hand. He brought in case of an emergency and was formality a plan in his mind.

"Follow me." he said to Mikey.

He then leaped off the roof they were perched on and onto the roof of the warehouse. Beams of light arose from the roof. Mikey and Leo were both careful to avoid it. Leo crawled to the edge of the roof and hung his head down to peer inside.

His eyes widened at the massive amount of weapons. They also looked familiar somehow. Most of the top shelves were empty. They were far enough from the ceiling to just barely let a crawling ninja turtle pass.

He slipped in without a sound and Mikey followed just as silently. They crawled to a lonely corner in the factory that was hidden by light shadows.

Leo gracefully fell to the floor again without a sound. Mikey landed with a plop earning a glare from Leo.

Leo went over to a nearby shelf of junk and unloaded my bomb. It was a crude pipe bomb, but combined with all of these weapons it would defiantly blow up the whole building. Probably the whole block too. Lucky for my brothers this part of town was abandoned years ago.

One of the last things I taught Leo was how to activate the bomb. He did it with ease and camouflaged it with the junk.

He turned to Mikey, "Okay bomb is on a countdown, which means we have an hour to get Raph and get out."

"Only an hour? What if we can't find him? Leo?" Mikey said concerned.

"I-I don't know, I'm kind of playing it by ear here."

Mikey rolled his eyes. "I thought this mission was too easy."

* * *

When I entered Raph's room it was once again covered with fog, and I was behind bars.

"RAPH!" I yelled "RAPH!"

Nothing. I panicked. I couldn't see or hear anything except for the bars in front of me.

"RAPH!Please!" my voice was getting weaker. There was a lump in my throat prevented me to speak. All around me I could feel Raph's burning pain. Every wound, cut his depression. Raph was so strong. I could never live with this.

"Raph." I whispered and fell to my knees. I clutched the bars as hard as I could and ferociously fought tears.

"Don?" it was a whisper but I perked up.

I searched all around me frantically until I saw him. He was coming out of the fog shinning brightly.

"Don." he ran over to me.

At that moment the only one that could understand the relief I felt was Raph. Because he was thinking exactly what I was. I couldn't speak. And if I had breathe I wouldn't have been able to breathe.

He knelled on the other side of the bars and looked me dead in the eye. He didn't know what to say either.

I reached my hand out of the bar to him. I knew this was useless but it was all I could do. I closed my eyes and let my hand lay there limp. Whiteness into darkness. Open or closed eyes I couldn't see.

Then something held my hand. In a firm grip that could only be...

I opened my eyes and looked to see a dark green hand clutching an olive one. I looked at Raph.

This joy he could never understand. This feeling, this touch was the only none painful one I had felt since I died. This feeling of assurance, this feeling of not being alone.

I held onto Raph's hand as hard as I could and smiled widely.

He smiled too, but it quickly faded. "I failed you Don..."

Then I remembered why I was here. "Raph, you have to get out of there." I warned him.

"Don't know how but.." he turned to leave but I held his hand tighter.

I couldn't let go, I wouldn't. This wonderful feeling came so fast, I couldn't let it go just as fast. Raph read my mind. He knelled down by my cage and stared at me. There we stayed. Long lost brothers finally reunited. And even though there were no words exchanged, we were having the conversation of our lives. Just in each others eyes we could read the other's feelings and so much more. The moment couldn't be more perfect. I couldn't have been happier.

But the reason he was here couldn't be worse. He was dieing, slowly. Soon he and this place would have disappeared and he would move on to the next life.

I couldn't have been more devastated.

* * *

"Mikey are you sure this plan is going to work?" Leo asked doubtfully.

"Dude of course it is, I've seen it in the movies a hundred times." Mikey confidently anwsered.

They were in the main hallways of the building hiding behind a corner.

"We just have to wait for the the right two idiots to walk up." he said.

His smile widened when he saw two heavy ninjas walking up chatting.

"And there's our prey."

Mentally Leo and Mikey counted down in their heads, then jumped out of the corner. The ninjas jumped back started and hardly had the time to pull out their weapons when Mikey and Leo knocked them out with blows to the head.

They quickly dragged them behind the corner. They striped them down to their underwear and put on the uniforms and masks.

Mikey was smiling under his. "Does this make my butt look big?" He said modeling for Leo.

"Knock it off Mike! This is serious!" Leo snapped. Mikey shut up and followed him to a room.

It was full of foot ninja, some lounging others making plans.

One of the planning ninja looked up. "What are you two doing here?" he asked, already suspicious.

"Uh we're uhhh," Mikey stuttered.

Leo slapped his hand over Mikey's mouth. "We're here about the prisoner, one of the turtles." He said confidently, there was not a hint of uncertainty in his voice, but inside he was panicking.

"What about him?" the ninja asked.

"We are doctors, we need to check him over, we need a key." he responded.

The ninja threw him a key. "Next time go to the main office." he turned back to his work.

Mikey and Leo spent the next couple of minutes searching for the security room.

"Leo over here!" Mikey called "I found it!"

Leo dashed in. Together they searched for Raph. Mikey gasped when he saw the shape he was in.

"Leo is he..." He started but Leo had already ran out.

Leo had a feeling in his stomach that he couldn't bare. He was going to lose another little brother.

They ran down endless hallways an countless stairs before they saw the entrance of the cell. Cautiously Leo put in the key and creaked open the door. There was Raph, in his terrible state. He looked bad on the camera, now he looked... dead.

Without thinking Leo and Mikey ran to him. "Raph!" they yelled.

Leo started to tugs on his chains but it did nothing but sink deeper into his flesh. He took out his katana and started to saw away.

"So nice of you to join us." Leo recognized the hated voice immediately.

He whirled around to come face to face with the Shredder.

* * *

"Shredder." Leo hissed.

"But-but how? You were banished to an asteroid deep in space." Mikey said.

"I was thanks to you reptiles! But the asteroid spun out of orbit and landed on an inhabited planet. Their scientist picked me up to examine but they reincarnated me my accident. I escaped their lavatory and took over their planet in only a few weeks. I then forced them to give me their best ship and all of their fuel. I destroyed the planet and navigated my way back to Earth." the Shredder explained bitterly.

Leo and Mikey scowled.

"Man your harder to get rid of then cockroaches!" Mikey growled.

An army came behind Shredder, completely blocking the exit.

"Kill them." he ordered.

Leo and Mikey took out their weapons, but they were terribly out numbered.

Leo was counting down in his mind and knew that any minute now that bomb will go off.

The first ninja charged at them then suddenly stopped when he heard a noise. A scream? The Shredder heard it too and went out to investigate. The screams got louder and a bunch of ninja were running past him. His eyes widened when he saw the walls were exploding emitting fire and smoke rampaging down the halls. He glared at my brothers and ran to the stairs.

Leo turned back to Raph and sawed the chains frantically.

"C'mon Leo! Hurry!" Mikey urged.

"Mikey run! Save yourself!" Leo demanded under his breath.

"I would have hoped you learn by now Leo that I'll never leave you guys!" Mikey said determinately.

Leo sighed and continued to saw. Closer Closer. The explosion was only feet away from them. Raph fell from the wall. Leo and Mikey scooped him up and ran as fast as they could with a brother draping over them down the halls.

They passed an elevator when Leo cried "Mikey wait the elevator!"

They ran into it and settled Raph down.

"C'mon C'mon 1st floor. Leo its not working!" Mikey said as soon as the elevator doors closed he was punching away at the buttons.

Leo nudged him out of the way and stuck a katana in the controls. "Of course not it's a fire."

"Uhh Leo why can't you take an elevator during a fire?" Mikey asked nervously.

"Because," he grunted "It leads you to the..."

Then the elevator doors began to open letting in some of he combustion. Leo and Mikey ran to the door and pushed the two ends together with all their strength.

"FIRE!"

Leo left to clutch Raph on the floor while Mikey kept the door closed. The entire elevator shook and Leo and I prayed it would hold against the explosion.

For a couple of horror filled minutes the world shook, then it settled down and finally stopped. Leo opened his eyes and Mikey fell to the floor panting.

Cautiously he opened the door and saw the new ruins of the building and half the block. He let out his breath, then remembered Raph.

"Mikey!" he called. Mikey nodded and they pulled Raph out of the elevator onto ashes. Leo held his breathe and searched for a pulse. He let go when he found one.

"Call Casey and April, Raph needs a lot of help." Leo ordered.

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTE- **Will Raph survive or die? And that's always a possibility when I AM writing. If you hate Disney channel stars as much as I do please review, and if you love them, review anyway!


	14. Life and Death

**AUTHOR'S NOTE- **Hey y'all again! Now 4 da answer.. which brothers will Raph join, Donnie? Or Leo? Only one way to find out, and I am wasting your time. Anyway, this ploy that Raph is in between of the dead and the living is a very big reference to the Lovely Bones where Susie's father was in the coma. I loved that line, but I won't quote it.

**DISCLAIMER- **Well I wish I could sit here and tell you that I do own the show but I'd be lying.

* * *

Mikey beat his fingers onto the table rhythmically. He had been slouching over their coffee table for hours. He didn't know what he was more afraid of, Raph never waking up, or Raph waking up. By the look of Leo's face there was going to be a fight.

Ever since the moment I disappeared Mikey had been alone more then he ever had in his entire life. Our older brothers were always fighting and our father...

He glanced over to the crying rat in the chair,. His paws were covering his face and muffling his cries. Mikey or I had never seen him like this. He was so weak now. Like there was nothing left to hold onto. It made Mikey and I both devastated. When he saw our father he felt weaker and like life was meaning less. When I saw him I filled with rage. Against the Shredder for being the cause of this and at our father for being so weak. Couldn't he see his sons needed him? Now more then ever. He was being selfish and yet I felt guilty. I should have been more careful.

Mikey got up from his position, finally and went over to our father. He comfortingly rested his hands on the old shoulders and squeezed them. Splinter looked up and at him in the eye.

Mikey gave him a small, encouraging smile. "Don't worry, April's here she's not going to let Raph die."

Splinter burst into tears and hid his face again. "M-my so..." His shoulders heaved up and down.

Mikey sighed and went back to his position, mentally yelling at himself for making things worse.

* * *

Leo paced the room feverishly. Going around the exit time and time again looking down at the floor with his fists clenched. He was so mad at himself, and Raph. he had already lost me, how many times would that have to happen before he learned not to let us go out by ourselves? How could he have been so stupid to just sleep when he knew Raph was mad? Why couldn't he just talk to Raph instead of yell at him? Why did Raph have to go off on his own?

But probably his biggest question was if Raph really could see me, then why couldn't he?

April was desperately trying to concentrate on Raph, but really she had almost no idea what to do. My brothers had called her frantically and just expected her to heal Raph with the snap of her fingers. Did they mistake her for me? Didn't they know she could never do what they were asking her off?

She had never seen so much blood in her entire life. She had wrapped up Raph's wounds again and again but they kept re-soaking themselves with blood. Raph was also drooling out blood. She had no idea what to do about that. And even if she did have medical knowledge there was not much she could do for him with the supplies we had.

She reapplied the last of the bandages and stepped back "There I think I'm done." she announced.

Leo rushed to her and over looked our brother. "You think?"

"Well I mean that's all the bandages you have."

"Does he need more?"

"I don't think it would really matter."

Leo stared at her "Wha.."

"See this?" she revealed under the smaller bandages an infected bump an Raph's neck. Leo's eyes widened. It was red and huge, yellow puss was oozing out. "I think he was injected with something?"

"Something fatal?"

"I don't know." she lowered her head.

"What do you mean you don't know? You have to April that's your job! Raph's life is in your hands!" Leo yelled.

Something in April flared up "No I'm sorry Leo but this is not my job! My job is selling antiques! And you can't just call a merchant and put your brother's life in her hands! It just dosen't work that way!" She looked at Leo who looked hopeless. "I'm sorry Leo this is the best I can do."

"No April," he said in a voice that was more hopeless and depressed then she'd ever heard "I-I shouldn't have asked so much of you, your right." he sighed "I'm just... not strong enough to lose another one of my family yet. No not again, never."

"Leo" she started as sympathetic as she ever was "I'm sorry, what else can I say?"

"Don't be April." Leo and April turned around to see Casey leaning on the doorway, glaring at them.

"What are you talking about Casey?" April asked.

"You shouldn't be sorry cause all this ain't your fault! You're not the reason Don's dead and certainly not the reason Raph went chaotic! They should be apologizing toi you, calling you at to in the morning demanding you do some kinda ER work with no experience!"

"Casey it is like that..." April started.

"I'm sorry Casey things have just been..." Leo tried to explain.

"NO! That isn't it! You made April quit her job so she can look for Don's body or murderer, you ruined her life with that! And now I'm workin to jobs just because you can't except the truth and MOVE ON!" Casey yelled.

"CASEY!" April shut him up. "I am always happy to help these guys, there like family, and I will help them even if I have to go out of my way for them!"

"Can't you see what they're doing April! They're using you! They're ruining your life because they're brothers death ruined theirs!"

"How dare you say that Casey Joans! They'd never use me like that! I have to help them, I'm the only one who can!"

"No you can't! Your an antique saleswoman not Sherlock Homes! You've been searching for weeks and found nothing! You gave your entire life up to that search!"

April was taken back "I have not!"

Now Casey was livid "THERE IS NOT ONE NIGHT I COME HOME THAT YOU'RE NOT SLOUCHED OVER THAT COMPUTER! YOU LOOK FOR THE MURDERER DAY AND NIGHT! YOU HAVE ME WORK YOUR STORE AND ANOTHER JOB JUST TO PAY RENT! WHEN WILL YOU WAKE UP! WE CAN'T KEEP LIVING LIKE THIS! WE CAN'T LET THE TURTLES DRAG US DOWN WITH THEM!"

"Those are my problems not yours Casey! And I'll spend my time as I please! And even if they were using me it is not your place to stick for me!"

"We're married April we share everything! And if you are in trouble I'll stand up for you no matter what!"

"I can stand up for myself!"

"You certainly aren't now!"

"If you don't like the ways things are going in the apartment then why don't you just leave!"

Casey paused then looked down "Cause I got no place to go."

* * *

Raph and I were holding hands for what seemed like an eternity. Nothing was said. But I knew I had to end this, I was the only one who could save Raph now.

I squeezed his hand as tight as I could. Raph looked up at me.

"Something the matter?" he asked.

"You don't belong here." I whispered.

"Yea I know that, you don't either."

I felt tears forming down my face "You have to go Raph."

"I'm not leaving you!" he said in his typical determined voice.

Now I knew how Leo felt when he told Mikey about me. I'd have to lie to him to get him to go. I'd have to tell him that I was dead. But the more I was there, the more truthful that became.

"You don't understand Raph, I'm here because I'm dead," I looked up at his shocked face. "You're here because you're dieing."

He was in quiet shock, so I continued. "I can never leave this place, but your opportunity is still here. Bu you have to fight for it Raph, Fight like I know you can. This fight will be the hardest one you'll ever do, but you have to Raph. You must open your eyes. Our family is lost without you."

Raph looked on the verge of tears "How can you be dead? You right here! This isn't where people go when they die."

"I'm a different case Raph. Now close your eyes and open them."

"Will I ever see you again?"

"Close your eyes and open them, wake up from this nightmare." I persisted.

"But Don..." he continued.

"Raph, wake up."

He was shaking with sorrow but agreed nonetheless. He closed his eyes and disappeared.

I sighed as his entire dream faded around me. The white walls melted into the familiar view of the souls. Heaven and Hell took their places, and I was back in the inbetween.

I looked back down to Earth and smiled as Raph stirred. No one, not one being could do what Raph did. I and all the souls who raced to Heaven or Hell agreed, he pulled off a miracle.

* * *

Leo was asleep on Raph's side when he first stirred. When he finally got his senses back he found it gross.

"Would you mind getting off me?" he angrily croaked.

Leo jumped up and stared at Raph.

"Raph you're alive.."

Raph rolled his eyes "Tell me something I don't know."

"How do you feel?" Leo asked worriedly.

"Weak, why am I here instead of kickin Foot ninja butt?" he asked rudely.

Leo scowled "Don't worry we did it for you, the building and all the ninja are destroyed, including the Shredder."

"What!" Raph sat up and wimched he fell down again moaning in pain.

"Easy Raph your gonna hurt yourself."

"You killed the Shredder?" he asked impatiently.

"Yes, along with all the other..."

"Why the shell did you do that! He knew where Don was!"

Leo couldn't believe what was coming out of our brother's mouth. "Do you have any idea what happened Raph? The Shredder beat you so hard I thought you were dead Raph! When I looked at you I thought you were dead! How could you scare me that? What were you thinking jut running in there and fighting everything that moves?"

"I was thinkin I had to do it because my idiot brothers wouldn't help me!"

"Your idiot brothers saved your life!"

"And destroyed Don's!"

That's it, Raph reached his boiling point "DONATELLO IS DEAD! HE'S GONE! HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU! OUT OF ALL THE IRRESPONSIBLE AND RECKLESS DECISIONS YOU MADE RAPH THIS WAS BY FAR THE STUPIDEST!"

Raph glared at him, hard "I hate you." he growled.

Leo's angry eyes widened then narrowed again "The feeling's mutual." he growled back then stomped out of the room.

* * *

Raph woke up to a crash. He sat up despite the pain and listened closely, another one.

He swung two pairs of throbbing legs over the bed and stood up. He almost fell, but clutched the bed tightly. Then best he could, he limped out of the room.

He looked around for anything broken, then widened his eyes when he heard it was coming from my lab. He limped there as fast as he could to find Leo smashing my testubes against my desk.

He was screaming as he ripped up my notes and crashed my chemicals over my desks. He kicked down my table and smashed my tool box against the wall creating a dent in it. He ripped my desk from it's hinges and threw it to the ground.

In the inbetween I was reacting as any younger brother would if their big brother was destroying their prize possessions. I was yelling at him to stop. I knew why he did it, but he had no right to destroyed all of my hard work.

"Leo! cut it out!" Raph roared and grabbed Leo's arm.

Leo easily shook him off and he fell to the floor, barely conscious. That's when Master Splinter and Mikey came running in. They gasped at th firghtening scene. But Master Splinter immediately ran to Raph as Mikey ran to Leo.

"Dude cut it out! Whats your problem? he yelled grasping Leo.

Leo broke free of his grasp and broke the last one of my test tubes. Mikey re gripped him.

"There!" he turned to Raph "Now he's truly gone! There is nothing you can remember him by! Nothing more to hang on to." his eyes were narrowed as he growled.

Mikey looked at him shocked, "You did this to get rid of Don?"

Leo glared at him "Don's dead Mike time we accepted it! Can't you see we're a shadow of our formal selves, we've got to get back to the real world."

"You think you saved us by doing this? Destroying Don's stuff will not help us get over his death!" he said angrily.

"Sides he's not gonna like watching it from wherever he is." Raph announced.

"WILL YOU GIVE UP ALREADY!" Leo shouted.

"NO!NO THERE IS NOTHING YOU CAN THREATEN SAY OR DO THAT WILL EVER **EVER **MAKE ME GIVE UP ON MY BROTHER!"

With that he limped away from the shocked room into his bedroom.

* * *

The days of Raph's recovery were filled with silence. Leo and Raph didn't even want to look at one another, much less speak.

Once he did recover he snuck out every night to look for me. Leo spent the entire day training. Master Splinter was always in his room, and as for Mikey... I felt so bad for him. He was in the middle of a war that he couldn't choose sides. He couldn't do anything that wasn't ruined by his older brothers.

Days faded into mouths, which melted into years. But in our family weeks weren't recognized. This was all just some long day. Each day was lived the same. Holidays were ignored, then forgotten.

By the fourth year of this was all Mikey could stand.

He swung a backpack stuffed with food around his shoulders and headed to the door in the middle of one night.

"Mikey." a voice almost a whisper stopped him.

Mikey turned around to face our eldest brother "Leo I..."

"Please don't go." he said like a helpless child.

Mikey sighed "I have to, if I spend one more day like this I'll go insane."

Leo looked down "I understand."

Mikey gave him a sad smile "Thanks" and turned to leave when he heard "I love you."

He faced Leo, he never said that before, but he couldn't return the gesture "Yea." he mumbled looking to the floor and continuing out the door.

On his way down the sewers he bumped into Raph. Raph studied him. Mikey expected a yelling at, but Raph just passed him.

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTE- **On a totally unrelated note I have to ask you readers is snuck a word? I hear it often but on spell check it has that red line thingy... REVIEW TO TELL ME


	15. Breaking Point

**AUTHOR'S NOTE- **Oh no! the dreaded date nears! I'm gonna start updating everyday now if I want to finish before... it. Srry if you can't keep up. Ehh this ones updated only a few hours after 14, but technically it is a new day, it's like 4:24, I'm tryin an all nighter. Anyway this chapter, well not giving away anything, but it's pretty bad, not in quality, but in the plot. And after this I suggest seeing SAINW and really listening to the script, you know look at it in a new way, you don't have too but mayb you'll be able to predict whats comin up. Well enough of my blabbing on with the disclaimer

**DISCLAIMER- **Nothing has changed.

* * *

Not long after Mikey left then Raph did. Not the city, just a different part of the sewers, as far away from Leo as possible. There he lived a life of sleep, eat, search. I never came back to his dreams. I didn't want history to repeat itself. But the future was making a new path, one more devastating then death. The Hamato brothers, once inseparable, were as far away from each other as possible. And it didn't look like that would change.

Two years after he ran away, Mikey had settled himself deep, deep in the untamed parts of the forest that surrounded Casey's grandmother's old cottage. He built a very crude fort, but it camouflaged very well in the environment. He used stalking skills once used to spy on enemies to get dinner. He used the valuable skills Splinter taught him sloppily and merciless out there. It was a pity to watch. And it made me very sad to think that he'd rather live out in the wilderness then with his own family.

He was determined to spend the rest of his life in the forest, but didn't expect a surprise visit.

He was sitting under a shaded tree and just successfully made a fire. Even though he did every night for the past two years, he still found thrill in seeing the sticks spark and gleam to life. He was skinning his latest catch, a fully grown doe when he heard footsteps. In just a matter of seconds he expertly hide his catch under a bunch of leaves, climbed a point in the tree that rendered him invisible and had his custom made spear pointed at the direction of the noise.

If it was an animal, any animal he'd kill it, for risk of losing his catch, if it was a human... The noise came closer, he prepared his spear at the noise, then when the figure revealed itself he lowered it.

"Mikey? Mikey? Buddy? Ya out here? Mikkaak!"

Casey was tackled into some shrubs and was cut off. He yelped and covered his face. And then he heard the familiar obnoxious laugh. He threw Mikey off me and Mikey rolled on the ground laughing.

"D-dude you shoulda seen your face you were like ahhh!" Mikey did an impression of him and returned hysterically laughing.

Usually Casey would have also laughed, but not today, not when he had such devastating, sickening news.

"Mikey we have to talk." He said seriously.

Mikey stopped laughing and got up "Why are you here?" he said now serious.

"Leo sent me."

"Look if it's about getting me home then forget it I'm happy here."

"It's not." Casey said harshly. He sighed and looked down "He wanted me to tell you that..." he couldn't finish the sentence.

Now Mikey was getting nervous. "Tell me what?"

Casey bit his lip.

"What is it Casey?"

Casey looked him straight in the eye. "Your father's dead Mike, I'm sorry."

* * *

Master Splinter's death was one of the most tragic things I was forced to watch.

But I suppose I should have seen it coming. Master Splinter had mentioned that if there was a pain greater then losing his son, then he couldn't bare it. Well there was, there was the pain of you entire family leaving you. When my brothers and I made our decisions we did once think of how it would reflect our beloved Master. The only yime I even thought of him was when I was mad at him for being weak.

It was when he died did I realize how wrong I was. I mean he lost his son, I couldn't imagine that but he lost me. I was his pride and glory. He didn't love life, he loved the fact that we did. He loved the fact that his sons treasured life. That's what gave him so much of it. We were the reason there was breath in his lungs, why he got out of bed every morning.

I'm surprised he even lasted two years.

It was late in the evening when Master Splinter came out of his bedroom for the last time. He was crying, but Leo was used to it by now. Leo was mediating on the floor. Ever since Raph left he didn't train anymore, he didn't really see the point. He wasn't going to take on a threat by himself anyway.

"Leonardo." Master Splinter croaked.

"Not now master I'm trying to meditate."Leo mumbled not opening an eye.

"Leonardo." Leo sighed and ignored him.

"I love you."

Leo's eyes snapped open and he turned to Splinter. He just stared at him for a few seconds then sighed and returned to mediation.

Master Splinter closed his eyes and drifted in his room. In the inbetween I wasn't really paying any attention until I heard my name.

"Donatello," He chocked out my name. "My last pure son, we have been separated for way to long," he pulled out an old sword of Master Yoshi.

That's when I freaked out and yelled "MASTER SPLINTER NO!"

"It is time for me to join you." he announced.

"But to the world I am leaving behind," he started to write a note.

I wasted no time and ran into his center and tried frantically to cramp myself in his cage.

"MASTER SPLINTER NO! DON'T YOU DARE DO THIS TO YOURSELF! YOU STILL HAVE TO MUCH TO LIVE FOR!" I never pusehed through something harder in my entire life. I was crying madly.

"PLEASE I LOVE SEEING YOU LIKE THIS IS SCARY! I NEED A FATHER AS MUCH AS YOU NEED A SON!" I heard him take his sword again "PLEASE!" I yelled at the top of my lungs. Master Splinter grunted in pain and a thump came from the floor. I fell to my knees crying madly as the entire center faded around me.

Master Splinter's soul went up to Yoshi's arms. During the trip all he was saying was "My son. My son. My son."

I had never cried so hard in my entire life.

Leo heard me. It broke him out of his meditation. He thought of me first and then...

"Master Splinter!" he yelled and burst into his room.

He screamed in horror at the sight of a sword through his father.

"No!" he ran over to him and lifted is head.

"Master Splinter. Master Splinter!" he shook him.

No response.

He felt for a pulse.

Nothing.

He searched the room and found the note. Tears from his eyes mad the words blurry as he read,

_Forgive me my son._

_But I am no longer able to live in a world with none of my family. Please do not blame yourself, I simply could not move on like you and your brothers. I know our family is no longer attacked, but if you ever do reunite, Leonardo you have the honor of making your brothers ninja masters. Please do not think of me as abandoning you, I'd never do that, I was just slowing you down I am sorry my sons. This is not good bye, we will meet again, I do not know where or when, but we will. I will tell Master Yoshi all about you when I'm with him. I and Donatello will be reunited and there will not be a moment where you are not in my thoughts._

_I have one favor to ask of you my sons, please bury me in the park. My greatest memories are held there._

_With all the love I can offer,_

_Master Splinter_

Leo threw down the note and cradled Splinter in his arms, soaking him with tears.

* * *

Leo looked down at his hands and twiddled with them on the couch as he waited for Mikey and Raph.

"Hey bro how have you been?"

Leo looked up at the familiar voice. "Hi Mikey." He said softly.

"Good to see you again, too bad these are the conditions." Mikey said solemnly.

Leo didn't respond, he just continued to play with his hands.

Mikey frowned and mentally decided to leave as soon as he could.

"YOU'RE A MONSTER!" A familiar voice raged.

Mikey turned to see Raph storm in.

"You know that?" he growled, then saw Leo ignoring him, much to his annoyance.

"I'm talkin to you!" he forced Leo to face him.

Leo broke free of his grasp. "Now isn't the time Raph.." he started.

"NOW'S THE PERFECT TIME! YOU KILLED HIM!"

"You and I both know that's not true." Leo responded despite himself.

"He needed you and you just left him!"

"It was what he wanted Raph!"

"YOU COULDA DONE SOMETHING!"

"I couldn't have done anything! His family left him!"

Raph and Leo were just about on each others throats when Mikey pulled them apart.

"Will you two just shut up and get this over with! I came here for sensai not to here you fighting! And I wanna get outta here as soon as I can!"

It was raining at the funeral. Leo and Rah had to work together to shove the carcass in mud. When they did it they left a wood plank and his cane to monument him.

It was what he wanted.

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTE- **Well they didn't specific WHY Splinter died... just that it was what he wanted. More to be explained in the next chapter, but until then review!


	16. The Accused

**AUTHOR'S NOTE- **Well it's that time of day again. Updating. And if any of you care Saturday night was an all niter for me! LOL But now on to something important... And BTW wat do you guys think of Karai/Chapmin?

**DISCLAIMER- **TNMT ton nwo od I

* * *

I grabbed the bars of my everlasting cage as if they were the last things I had. They were, the last things I had. I sunk to the floor in hysteric tears. But I heard Master Splinter up in heaven, he was asking about me, asking everyone. Where I was, was I okay. I screamed to him, but he never heard me. Never in my time up here did I want to be heard more.

It was all just so sick. My brothers stuffing him into a puddle of mud. The grave stood peacefully, it was concealed from sight, but it saw everything. It was what he wanted, it was what he wanted. I kept telling myself that, but somehow it just made me feel so much worse.

"Don't waste your tears he can't see or hear you." a voice I now hated came from behind me.

I gritted my teeth and whirled around to face the future versions of my brothers.

"Why didn't you tell me!" I screamed.

Mikey stayed calm "I did tell you."

"You told me he gave his life to protect you guys!" I was in full rage.

"He did, to protect us from himself, he was dragging us all down and wasn't any use to us."

I couldn't respond. I couldn't find the right words. I was so mad at them, even more then I was about the Shredder.

I charged at Mikey and banged his head on the bars of my cage. "GET ME OUT OF HERE! NOW!" I yelled.

Mikey glared at me "Can't do it."he simply said.

I glared my teeth and turned to the rest of my 'brothers'.

"This is all your fault! If you two hadn't have abandoned him none of this would have ever happened!" I screamed.

Mikey glared at me. "I only left because Leo and Raph were fighting."

"And we were fighting because you wouldn't leave me alone!" Raph spoke up.

"Well what was I suppost to do? Sit here and watch my weapons be used to rule the world!" I yelled.

"It wasn't your weapons that brought an end to our lives Donatello, it was you breaking us up that started the chaos." Leo stated.

My eyes widened.

"We've taken on far tougher things then a bunch of weapons but as a team." Mikey growled.

"And besides, you didn't want to destroy the weapons, you wanted to destroy Shredder, all you wanted was revenge!" Raph yelled.

I was shaking with anger, fear and guilt. "Why didn't you warn me? How could you just sit back and let this happen?"

"We tried, we told you to accept your death, but you refused." Leo said darkly.

My entire being shook. I looked them straight in the eyes. "What do I do now?"

They exchanged glances.

"Is it too late to stop this?"

"Yes" They responded together.

* * *

One important thing I learned in the inbetween was that there were no happy endings.

The shredder had survived the bombing, of course. The weapons hadn't but by then the scientist had downloaded their schematics to many different computers. A couple of weeks after the bombing the Foot Corporation had moved to New Jersey. None the less Shredder was furious.

"How did the turtles find out our headquarters?" he roared to many of his surviving workers.

All that responded were shrugs and confusion. He turned to one of the Foot.

"Get Stockman... Now!"

They had to reschedule the building operation for a third time. This was money they could hardly afford. By now the Shredder was livid. He did this to get away from his enemies but it was completely back firing. It was the night of the bombing when he decided the only way he could rid of his enemies is if he destroyed them.

"Master." a voice came from behind him.

"What is it Karai?" he snapped.

"I was reviewing the security tapes and there were only three turtles."

Shredder paused, he didn't notice that. He stopped to think how that one turtle got in there anyway. His workers had reviewed the tapes looking for Raphael, but they didn't catch him sneaking through any of the guarded doors. Then they had investigated to find a hidden back door through the sewers. How did the turtle know of a back door that even he didn't.

Another mystery was where did the weapons come from? They were mixes of triceratops and federation military. Who could have put them together?

"Master Shredder I think you should come down to the basement and see this." a workers voice rang through a cell.

"This better be good." he snapped and rushed down to the basement.

* * *

Hun shuffled through the ruins of the block. He wondered to himself who could have blow this place up?

It was where he grew up and when one of the dragons reported the sighting to him he came right away. But for now all of that seemed like a waste of time. There was nothing but dirt, well that he could see. It was night since the police were busy inspecting the area in the daylight hours.

He kicked a huff of dirt. This was pointless. If there was anything to be found the police would have already taken it in.

"Boss boss!" a scrawny teenage came running through the dark. "We found the main police's office's keys." he said smiling the keys were dangling from his hands.

Hun snatched them and made his way to the office. They had tried to break down the door, dent marks reflected that, but it was thick. Hun jammed the keys into the lock and turned with ease.

Inside there was everything recovered from the bombing, which wasn't much. Some scraps of metal were placed neatly on the table. To the scientist they were mechanical mysteries, but Hun recognized the metal right away.

His eyesight wandered over to a box of cloth. Each of them were in line waiting to be stylized, but this cloth felt and looked familiar to Hun. He soaked the cloth in a nearby sink and wiped away excess sot to reveal a fading image of the Foot's insomnia.

He almost dropped the cloth. Suddenly it was coming together. He wandered to some of the pictures taken of the site. He studied the ground very hard and squinted at the picture. There was a footprint... a three toed footprint. The turtles.

Now the puzzle was whole, the Shredder was here and he was in trouble. He had to get the purple dragons back on the Foot side, since the Foot fought which ever organization wasn't allies with them.

And he gang was in no position to defeat the entire Foot Clan. He ordered many of his dragons to search the entire city, even Jersey. He needed to find Shredder before Shredder found him.

* * *

Stockman scowled as Chapmin typed away at their mega computer. He had connected Stockman's mind to the screen and now was reading his every thought. The Shredder had come up with an inhumane plan. He had Chapmin memorize every single thought, idea or schematic in Stockman's mind. When he was done, Stockman would be murdered.

That was certainly not the way he wanted to go down. He hated that overly eager scientist.

"Wow can you believe it! I am actually inside your mind! How cool is that?" Chapmin exclaimed.

"Why don't don't you click on my emotions and find out just how cool it is?" Stockman snapped.

"Chapmin get down to the basement immediately." Karai's voice came from the radio.

"I'm coming Mistress Karai." Chapmin responded and headed out. "Don't leave while I'm gone Dr. Stockman." he said leaving.

Stockman mentally scowled.

He looked onto the computer screen. This torture was worse and defiantly more humiliating then Bishop's. Bishop. Suddenly he came up with a perfect plan to rid himself of his only competition.

"Well if it isn't Mr. Baxter Stockman." a familiar annoying voice came from the doorway.

"How did you get in here Hun?" He asked in a mono toned voice.

"My men found this place and I just fought my way over here."

"You're here to join back with the Shredder I take it."

Hun stayed quiet not wanting to admit anything. Stockman found this as a beautiful opportunity. He searched his mind for an interesting schematic he had found while reviewing old flash drivers from the triceratops. It was of a teleporter, a universal teleporter. He had memorized every detail of it and had planned to use it later. But now was as good as time as any to change the plans. He printed it out the plans.

"Hun I have a deal for you, if you make it look like Chapmin had been hiding these plans from the Shredder he would place you and your dragons back into his alliance for good."

"You're making plans with me?" he asked, just making sure.

"Don't get used to it."

Even though Hun hated Stockman he saw no other way around it.

"Deal." he agreed.

* * *

"They are a perfect match." the scientist concluded to the Shredder.

Shredder studied the screen, my finger prints and the finger prints on the weapons were matched up exactly.

"The turtle created all these weapons?"

"It appears so."

That would explain a lot.

"I can go get the security footage." Chapmin suggested. Shredder nodded him off and Chapmin ran off.

"That still doesn't explain why there were only three turtles." Karai reasoned.

Shredder grunted "Maybe Stockman knows a thing or two about that."

He went off to Chapmin's lab. When he got there he found a muscular mass choking the eager scientist.

"What is the meaning of this! What are you doing here?" He referenced to Hun.

"I came to ask for your alliance Master but I found this traitor trying to hide this from you." he handed Shredder the plans.

"A teleporter?" the Shredder inquired.

Chapmin's eyes widened "I've never seen that before in my life!" he exclaimed.

"Silence I have no time for traitors!" The Shredder lifted his sword.

Karai gasped "But Master he has not plead his case yet!"

"He doesn't get the chance!"

"But who will replace him?"

Shredder thought for a moment "Hun" with that he brought the sword aimed for Chapmin's chest

"NO!" Karai yelled and ran over to him and blocked the sword.

"You dare disrespect me?"

"There is no honor here!" Karai exclaimed. Shredder kicked her to the ground and brought the sword into Chapmin's chest. He smiled as Chapmin and Karai shrieked. He twisted the sword around making Chapmin flinch in pain.

Karai ran over to him. Shredder and Hun walked away.

"Do not worry you are going to be fine." Karai said cradling Chapmin's head.

She turned to call for the doctors. "Karai I-I never saw those plans before in my life, I swear." he panted.

"Shh save your strength Doctor Chapmin." she soothed him. The doctors rushed in and prepared him for the transportation to he medical room. Karai never let go of his hand.

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTE- **Yea another chapter without the turtles, I seem to get less reviews on these, hey you don't have tpo review but do read, they're part of the plot.


	17. Countdown

**AUTHOR'S NOTE- **Hey everyone! Wats y'all been doing since last update? LOL I don't care! Anyways for this chapter I decided to try my hand at romance. I am an author who likes to verify their genres and even though I hate romance I decided this story could use a little.

**DISCLAIMER- **I do not own the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but I do own the Teenage Mutant Samurai Zebras.

* * *

Casey moved through the apartment so quietly that he impressed even me. He had as much of his belongings over his shoulders as he could carry. That only meant one thing, he was running away.

He was not surprised when he came into the main part of their apartment to see April slumped over her computer sound asleep. Her hair was in a tangled mess. The clothes she wore had to be at least a week old, and he could smell her stink from the door. She was certainly a mess, but what drove Casey and I mad was that she wouldn't admit it.

He put his hand on the door knob and looked around for the last time. He hated leaving her, but he had no choice, April,us everything he loved about New York was gone. April could hardly stand the sight of him, he could hardly stand the sight of my brothers and he was losing himself.

He left without a note. He just didn't know how to express his leaving in words. But he knew April would understand, that's why he loved her, she understood him more then anyone else.

He hopped on his bike and turned his head. His face was not one of an outlaw, but of that lost child he was so many years ago. The identity he was running from.

"Good-bye April." he whispered and turned to his bike.

He didn't see April's tired yes staring at him through the window. He didn't notice her crying as he disappeared down the streets of New York. She stared out the window long after he disappeared. She thought of all their memories, from when they first met,to the fights with each other and the world, her favorite memories were when they came together to face their problems as a team. Husband and wife, the most powerful team there was. He was the reason she understood what being in love was really about, what it really meant.

I put my intangible arm on her shoulder, I tried my best to comfort her. But I wouldn't have been able to do that even if I was alive.

In fact I wasn't sure how many problems I would be able to fix even if I was still part of this Earth.

Casey ran away to his farmhouse. April knew where he was and Casey knew she did too. But this was the place he came to when he needed to get away from it all. And now that he lived here where would he next run away from his problems?

Casey was suppost to be a tough vigilante who wasn't afraid of anything. What happens to that courage when you need it?

* * *

"Stockman!"

Stockman jumped and looked up from his project.

"Whats the progress on my suit?"

Stockman sighed. Shredder had found his plans for HIS new body and turned them into a new body for himself. Now that Stockman analyzed it, it was almost as if he designed it for the Shredder. All it needed was a few modifications and it would fit Shredder's utrom body perfectly.

Every second of working on this project was absolute torture. He was once again degrading is own genius. Why was it that every plan he executed ended up in him working unwilling for some demanding over lord? The only difference between Shredder's torture cell and Bishop's was that Shredder had Hun watch him every minute of the day so he wouldn't do anything harmful to himself or the project.

"Well the main life containing simulations are almost complete and I'm just doing a rough draft for the main weapons."

"How long until completion?"

"Two to three more years."

"Unacceptable! I want it done in three to four days at the most!"

Stockman turned to face the Shredder with the front side of his brain. "Yes and I would like my own free will but I guess neither of us will be getting what we want!"

Shredder put a blade next to Stockman's glass. "Are you back talking to me?"

Stockman scowled "You can't kill me you need me to make your suit."

"Wrong! I have many scientists capable of making the suit and all they need are the plans!"

"Like even they could make the suit that fast."

"Let me put it simply Stockman, make the suit in three days or die!"

"Alright alright, but can you at least let me know why you need it so fast."

"You don't need to know anything." with that the Shredder walked away.

Stockman growled, he hated the Shredder so badly!

* * *

When Chapmin woke up he expected to be safe in his bed and look back at the past experience as a terrible nightmare. That didn't happen. He woke up feeling woozy and to Karai standing in the corner of the room.

Or at least that's what he thought the swaying figure was. "Ka-Karai?" he asked weakly.

"Do not speak, you need your strength to make a full recovery."

"Am I going to die?" the usual enthusiastic Ora he had was faded.

"No, the doctors say you need much rest but you will live. You are very lucky the Shredder did not do to you as he did to Stockman."

"But I didn't do anything, I was framed."

"By who?"

Chapmin thought for a bit, then remembered where he found the plans.

"Stockman." he said, his voice confused and helpless.

"Then tell my father, it is likely he will believe you over Stockman."

"But I can't."

Karai was shocked "What why not? He tried to kill you!"

"But he's the reason I'm a scientist, he's my hero, my inspiration."

"He doesn't give you the same respect you give him."

"Look who's talking!"

Karai was taken back "What do you mean?"

"The Shredder tried to kill and hurt you many times. He has no respect for you! And yet you worship him and call him Master."

"He's my father!"

"No, he's your hero, you look up to him, you stick up for him for everything."

Karai was silent.

"You understand."

She sighed "I do Chapmin, I do. How is it you know so much about me?"

Chapmin blushed. "Well I really pay attention to what you say is all."

"Oh" Karai responded trying to ignore his red face.

"Thank you for sticking up for me."

Now it was Karai's turn to blush. "Your welcome, but do not expect to always be there for you. You have to watch out for yourself as I do myself." her voice suddenly fierce.

"Does it really have to be that way? Can't we look out for each other?"

Karai was shocked, no one had ever before offered anything like this to her. So she tackled this new feeling as a threat, like she did everything else that was new in her life.

"So you want to be in an alliance?"

"Yes, well kind of."

"I should have guessed, in this alliance all you want is for me to protect you and when I finally fall you will run away like a coward. No I am not going to waste all my strength on you." her eyes narrowed.

"No Karai it's not like that at all I want to be there for you!"

"Why! Why do you care about me so much! Why are you offering me this kindness." she demanded she was hoovering over him.

"Because... because..." he stammered, and clear sweat lines fell down his face.

"Well?"

He gulped "I guess I'm the first boy to fall in..." he couldn't continue.

He gasped as Karai picked him up by his shirt and started to shake him "I have no patience for this, answer my question!"

"fall in love with you!"

Karai dropped him "What?"

"I guess I'm the first boy to fall in love with you." he said in one breath. He never had to admit his feelings like that to a girl before.

Karai was still. Thousands of words were traveling through her mind at a hundred miles an hour but before she could open her mouth the Shredder barged in.

"I need Chapmin." His eyes narrowed at the young man "Come now." he growled.

Chapmin couldn't feel his legs but none the less forced himself to move it. He slumped out of bed and followed the shredder as fast as he could. He paused when a grip tightened around his wrist.

"Whenever I'm around you my stomach does flips and I feel happier then ever before." She got inches away from his face "What is that feeling?"

Chapmin smiled "That's called love Karai."

Forgetting about the Shredder he grabbed Karai and pulled her in for her very first kiss. Her first reaction was to push him off but she stood frozen in joy. After a few magical seconds they broke apart and smiled at one another. Chapmin thought Karai smiled beautifully.

"Karai." he said holding her hands tightly "Let's run away together, away from this Hell, to a place where all there is, is you and me."

"Bu-but I could never run away from my father."

"Karai do you love me enough to give up everything? Because I would do the same for you."

Karai pulled him into a hug "Yes I would." she closed her eyes. "Do you have a plan?"

Chapmin was shocked, but laughing at the same time "No but we'll play it by ear."

"Sounds like an adventure." Karai smiled.

"CHAPMIN GET OVER HERE!" The Shredder yelled.

"Whenever I finish what ever Shredder is planning then we will run away."

"And get married and start lives of our own." Karai exclaimed.

Chapmin blushed "I never thought I'd hear a girl say that."

"CHAPMIN!"

"You better leave." Karai advised.

"I'll be back, I promise."

"I'll wait for you. I promise I will not leave without you." Chapmin kissed Karai's hand one more time then limped off to the Shredder.

* * *

Walking was painful when you had a body cast over your entire torso, climbing a skyscraper was almost unbearable.

Chapmin refused to look down as he slowly followed the Shredder's figure leap up the building like it was a mountain goat. It was late at night and the Skyscraper they were climbing was the none other then the Empire State Building.

"Hurry up Chapmin! It's almost dawn."

Chapmin rolled his eyes, making him climb this building after he had just been stabbed, and to make matters worse he had to carry a 50 pound backpack. The only reason he was still suffering was his promise to Karai. He would make it back and if this was the only thing he had to do to get her love then he'd do it twice.

They had started at 9 pm and it was now 4. The Shredder said they could only make it to the deified place if they climbed. To Chapmin this was all some excuse for him to torture him.

At 4:50 the Shredder stopped and Chapmin almost cried.

"Unload the bomb and set the countdown for twenty four hours."

My eyes widened as he unloaded it, it wasn't just a regular nuclear bomb, but a triceraton one. One that I had improved. It could easily wipe out New York city and New Jersey.

"It needs a password to be defused." Chapmin said.

"Make one up." Shredder growled.

Chapmin set it off. "Now don't you want to know what it is?" Chapmin asked.

I was about to read his mind for it when the Shredder replied with a smirk burning through his mask "No."

With that he kicked Chapmin off the building and enjoyed the sound of his screams until he hit the ground. But his screams didn't end there. His body stopped descending but his soul screamed all the way down to internal suffering.

* * *

24 hours on the clock. I raced to warn my brothers. But I was stopped.

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTE- **Oooohh climax. So my dear readers... What will happen next? Who stopped Donnie? Will he warn his brothers in time? Did I do a good job with the romance? Will you review if I did?


	18. Crumbing Walls

**AUTHOR'S NOTE- **Hey guys, I really think you're gonna like this chapter, it's my personal favorite. I'm not giving any spoilers this far into the story though. But hey don't listen to my judgment read and enjoy for yourself.

**DISCLAIMER**- I hereby state that I Mensis Eclipse, do not own TMNT

* * *

"Where do you think you're going?" the future Leo asked me.

"Didn't you see what just happened! The Shredder's gonna blow up the city, I have to help my brothers stop him!" I yelled back and tried ti get past them but Raph's firm arm caught me in place.

"And just how do you think you're gonna do that?" he growled.

"I'm going to get my brothers back together." I said determinedly. "And all I have to do to do that is show Leo and Mikey that Raph's right by coming down to Earth."

"You can't do that." Mikey snarled.

"Why not?"

"Because even if you do by some miracle chance bring them together and go back down to Earth help them it's only temporary." Leo explained.

"And you can't come back to the in between once your time on Earth is up." Raph continued.

"You can't go to Heaven or Hell either." Mikey finished.

"Do you understand Don, if you go down to Earth, that's it your spirit will be destroyed, you won't be dead or alive, or in between you'll be nothing." Leo warned.

I bit my lip and closed my eyes. "But if I don't help my brothers then I am nothing."

Raph, Leo and Mikey all looked shocked "You're willing to risk your entire being for your family?"

I looked up at them straight in the eye "Absolutely."

They exchanged glances I couldn't really read "It's your being Don," they started then began to disappear.

"I still love you guys."

They stopped and looked at me.

"I still love you, despite whatever happened I still love you, I never stopped for even a second."

They smiled for a moment, something I'd never seen them do. "We know Don, now." Mikey said as they disappeared.

I took a deep spiritual breath. My brothers were worth it, my family was worth it.

In l Kept telling myself. It was at that moment when I finally excepted the truth, when I finally admitted that I Donatello had died January 16th 2008, and that now I had to help my brothers continue with their lives. I headed to Raph's center for one last time.

* * *

Raphael was bent over one of the New York rooftops by Time Square. He was looking over the city's flashing lights. This place was sop big and lively, but also so lonely and lost. The lights danced on his face and reflected in his eyes.

Ever since he left Leo he had been living like a pigeon, scavenging for food at the filthiest places in the city. He lived in an abandoned apartment building on the dark side of town. All he had was a worn out blanket, bloody sais and a ripped mask.

"Raph" I called out to him.

He sighed, he thought this was an illusion, a dream of me, one he had so many times before. I had to struggle to get into his room, the door was opened just a crack.

"Raph it's me, it's really me!"

His entire room shook, "Shut up! Shut up!' his mind roared.

"Raph listen to me."

Being alone for so many years did a number on my brother. He hadn't talked to a real person since Leo. He was dirty, worn and scarred just like the town he lived in. He was becoming the turtle I was trying my best to keep him from. I suppose all he needed to feel was alone and the rest would come easily.

"Raph!"

"Shut up Don."

"I'm real Raph I'm right here with you." His center, or room was a mess, there were items everywhere it almost made Mikey's look clean. It matched the rest of his lair ewhich was dirty and abandoned. It looked like the place I had first visited when I came to the future.

"Yea right."

"Raph, it's me your tech loving brother." I went over to a side of his room and picked up some of the mess. He stopped and his entire being felt relieved.

"Don?"

"Yes Raph?"

The room started to shake again and all the things I had picked up fell again and the room became an even worse mess.

"Where were you when I needed you!" he shouted into the air.

"Raph calm down!" I cried, I tried to pick up every fallen object.

"Where were you when Mikey left, when Master died when Leo kicked me out? Where have you been? What kind of a brother abandons you like that?"

"I didn't abandon you!"

"I stuck up for you and you made me look like I was crazy in front of the whole family! I lived out here for years alone waiting for you to come but you never did!"

"Raph listen to me! I didn't talk to you because you were going insane!"

"Are you alive or aren't you Don I am so confused!"

"I'm dead Raph! I'm dead!"

Raph was quiet then whispered "Master Splinter's dead, he doesn't talk to me."

"I told you, I'm a different case."

Raph was quiet and I took a deep breath "I need your help Raph."

No response.

"There's a bomb on top of the Empire State building set to go off in 24 hours."

"So?"

"This bomb can destroy the entire city."

Raph clenched his fist "Foot?"

"Yes"

He sighed "I guess it's up to me to stop them,"

"No Raph, you need our brothers to stop this, we...I already made the mistake of making you go off on your own and I'm sorry Raph."

Raph looked to the sky "Sorry?"

"I separated you from the family, I'm the cause of this entire mess."

"Don you can't blame yourself" he tried to reason.

"No I am the only one to blame, those weapons the Shredder stole were mine, I created them and that bomb he's using to destroy the city... I made that too."

"What?"

"I'm sorry Raph."

"W-why? Why were you makin weapons for the Shredder?"

"They weren't for the Shredder! They were for you guys, in case something ever happened to me you could have the means to protect yourselves."

Raph was now very confused "When did you do this?"

"Remember when I fought the purple dragons over the oil."

Raph thought for a minute "I think so why?"

"That night and till the day I died."

"That fight freaked you out so much you had to make weapons?"

"No it was something before, that freaked me out."

"What?"

I sighed "Remember when Draco sent us to the alternate dimensions?"

"Where are ya goin with this Don?"

"Well he sent me to the future, it was awful Raph, Splinter was dead Shredder ruled the world and you guys were changed and separated. And everything was so messed up!"

"So you created weapons?"

"Yes because in that future I wasn't there or hadn't been there for 30 years. When I got back I did everything I could to make sure it never happened." I stopped, close to tears. "Instead I insured that it would happen. This is all my fault Raph."

Raph was practically speechless except for the whisper "Why didn't you tell us?"

"I don't know." I whispered back.

Silence over took us for a few minutes until Raph finally spoke up. "I'll help you Don, I'll do whatever I can."

I smiled and started to pick up some of the mess on his carpet "Raph you're the greatest."

I noticed a big blood stain on the carpet and knew exactly what it was "Raph you have to make up with Leo."

"What? No I can't do that he hates me he can't stand to look at me."

"He's your brother."

"Not anymore."

The stain seeped deeper into the floor. "Raph, in the future you and Leo, well you die hating each other, you die like strangers not like a family, you don't die with honor."

Raph bit his lip "He won't listen to me," then perked up "He''ll listen to you."

"I can't speak to him until he has no secrets, until he's his total self with you."

"And if I tell him that he'll look at me like I'm twice as crazy."

"Just because something is crazy doesn't mean it's not true." Raph really couldn't argue with that.

"I'll try, but for you Don, not Leo."

I smiled sadly "Raph your doing this for yourself."

* * *

Leo was just as alone as Raph was, maybe even more. The only thing to keep him company in his lair was the sense of failure. He had ripped apart his family. He just couldn't believe that one by one they all left him. His worst nightmare came true.

He had tried to leave the lair many times but could never bring himself to. He found that he couldn't sleep anywhere else then that old chair either. There was still a chance, a small hope that one of these nights I would at last return to the lair. He could never let go of that. He had the same dream night after nigh. They just got worse after he destroyed my lab. I'd always ask him why and he could never respond.

He was sound asleep in the chair when Raph came for the first time in over four years. Raph creaked the door open just a rack and Leo stirred a bit. Raph studied the mess his elder became and noticed the trusty Katanas hanging on the wall, rust started to coat them.

"Don, you shouldn't have worried us like that." he mumbled.

Raph looked confused to the sky.

"He's dreaming," I explained "this is the dream he has every night, that I would walk through that door and return."

I read Raph's confused face right away "He may say he's moved on, but really Raph he misses the old times as desperately as you."

"Why did he yell at me?"

"Because, he thought you were the reason there was so much pain around him."

Raph sighed "Was I?"

"No I was."

Raph was about to protest when I interrupted him "Wake him up."

He scraped his sai against the door since he had suddenly lost his voice. Leo jumped up and madly looked around. His eyes narrowed when he saw Raph and in a second's time he had both katanas in his hand and was in a defense stance.

"Leave. NOW!" he warned, switching his stance to offense.

"Relax I don't want to fight." Raph put his weapons away.

"If you want to come back forget it. We...I don't want you here." he snarled.

"All I want is for you to listen to me..."

"Oh let me guess is it another ghost story about Don, or a crazy plan to attack the Shredder?" he mocked.

"Do you ever shut up and listen to someone beside your instincts?" Raph snapped.

I tried to pick up Raph's room as fast as it was being messed up but it was overwhelming. "Raph calm down!" I cried. He didn't hear me.

"Why are you here?"

"Because Don said that..."

Leo shuttered at the name. The last straw. "GET OUT NOW!"

"No."

Leo tackled him to the floor with a katana at his neck "Then why don't you go join Don?"

"You wouldn't hurt me Leo." Not fighting back for Raph was torture but I begged him not to, that would only worsen things. But I feared that could be the only option.

"Try me!"

"Why can't you just listen to me?"

"Because it was your crazy Don obsession that ripped this family apart Raph, you destroyed our family, our name and everything that was important to me! I HATE YOU!"

"How can you hate me? We're brothers we share the same blood."

"Brothers don't destroy each others lives!"

"Brothers also listen to one another!"

"Why don't we just agree we're not related anymore and you leave, forever."

"Because I came here to make peace. For forgiveness, Leo I'm sorry."

Leo's eyes widened and his grip loosened, Raph never apologized, for at least something this big. He sighed and tightened his grip "I can not forgive you."

"Leo if I leave do you really think everything's gonna get better? I'm tryin to make peace here, something I've never done before or will ever do again."

"Why?"

"Because I promised Don."

Leo punched him in the face, "He's dead Raph Don's dead."

"I know!"

Leo looked at him, shocked "Then why are you.."

"Look I don't know why or how, I just know he can speak to me."

"No he can't. This is the attitude that split us up. You can't see him Raph and he's not speaking to you!"

"Oh so you went inside my mind and checked."

"No!"

"Then how do you know, how can you assume that I'm just hearing things?"

"Because I can't see him!' Leo was close to tears. "Because I tried everything I could to talk to him and nothings can you see him! Why you? I miss him just as much as you do and so does the rest of the family. Why only you?"

"Don said he tried to see you but you have walls covering something and..."

"Do you even hear yourself? You sound absolutely insane!"

Raph now got angry and flipped Leo over. Leo dropped his weapons and now Raph hoovered over him, very angry.

"LISTEN TO ME!" he screamed.

Leo was silent.

"Maybe part of the reason you can't hear him is because you can't hear us who are alive."

Leo sighed "How do I rid of these walls?"

" I don't know you have to be yourself I guess, show how you feel about Don, try crying."

Leo gritted his teeth. He jumped out of Raph's grip and re grabbed him "You know why I never listen to you is because you come up with the dumbest ideas. Do you think if I really tell you how I feel about his death that he will return?"

Raph opened his mouth to respond but Leo continued anyway.

"Well I'll tell you and when Don doesn't show up I want you out of my face forever! Do you hear me? Forever! I miss him, no more then that, I have a dream every night where he comes back. I feel like a complete failure and an idiot, I let him go out by himself. I was his big brother swore to protect him and I wasn't there when I needed him the most! And every night when he comes home, he always leaves, he always reminds me of what a failure I am! He was a peaceful being a genius, he didn't deserve death and when I think of him in Hell my stomach turns inside out! I can't leave the lair because that damn hope that he would come back always haunts me!" he was crying now. "I never thought that he would die, I never prepared myself for it." He narrowed his eyes and looked Raph straight in the eyes "There look at me I'm crying that's exactly how I feel now where is my brother!"

Raph couldn't answer. Panting now Leo got off of him "That's what I thought, now leave." he pointed to the door.

In Leo's center his locks fell and I entered April's shop.

"Leo." a voice came from behind him. He closed his eyes and clenched his fists.

"It's me Leo, I'm right here."

I saw the tears stream down his eyes, he refused to look at me. Instead I went to him. I raised his chin gently so he could look at me.

"Don?" he rasped.

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTE- **Maybe that was a little sappy ending... anyway I just love writing fights, they're so... I don't know deep? Exciting? Anyway reviewing is a generous anmd kind way to tell an author that they matter in the world and that this story is not at all a waste of time.


	19. Reunited

**AUTHOR'S NOTE- **This ones cute 2.

**DISCLAIMER- **I do not own any reptiles of any kind.

* * *

I looked like, well a ghost. I was white and my figure was fading, my features were hardly noticeable, but my vibe I suppose is what really gave me my character.

Leo's eyes were closed. He refused to open them, for the fear that once he did I would once again disappear like another dream.

"You shouldn't have worried us like that." he whispered.

"Leo," I said trying to get him to look up.

He cracked his eyes open, they looked delighted and relieved. All he could do then was smile. He breathed out a happy sigh. I smiled back, it had been so long since my oldest brother saw me. The thrill equaled to the one I felt with Raph.

"Is that really you?" he asked, but I knew he knew the answer. None the less I nodded and rested a hand on his shoulder.

This was the most alive I was since that night in January . I could feel air traveling through my body. I felt as if I were underwater, not completely grounded but I had some weight on me. The best part was I could feel, only a little bit, but I could finally touch my family. I could be heard and seen. The last time I was on this Earth I took that for granted. I made sure not to this time.

Raph stood in the corner, he was smiling, despite himself. He was witnessing something he thought he'd never see again. Leo saw me staring a him. Then read my eyes.

"Raph," Leo started getting his attention "I'm-I'm sorry Raph, I should have listened to you."

Now this was defiantly something Raph swore he'd never live to hear. Or that's how I felt at least. Rap simply grunted in reply.

"Well are we just gonna stare at each other all day or are we gonna do something about the bomb?" he asked.

"Bomb?" Leo questioned.

I faced him "Yes, the Foot set up a bomb in the Empire State Building that's set to blow up the entire city." I explained.

"How do you know this?" Leo asked.

I smiled "Leo I was watching everything you and the rest of our family did since the day I died."

"Everything?" he looked to Raph then to me. He face grew pale and a guilty look over came him.

He faced Raph "You were right, about everything."

That must have been hard for him to admit, but I couldn't let him thinking he was a complete jerk.

"No Leo, not everything, he was only wrong to go after the Foot on his own. And he only did that because, well I told him to."

"Why?" he asked.

"I'll explain everything on the way."

"To the bomb right?" Raph asked smacking his fist into his palm.

"Not until our family is reunited." I said.

Leo got my message quickly. "But Don, Mikey hates us he doesn't even want to look at us."

"He can't hate you two as much as you hated yourselves," Raph and Leo glanced at one another "If you two can make peace then you can do it with Mikey."

"I don't even know where he is." Leo admitted, pretty ashamed.

"He ran away from the city, to a place he felt safe." I hinted.

"I know where he is!" Raph perked up.

"Go apologize, I'll meet you there." I said then disappeared.

I had a lot more control of reality as a ghost, which was probably one of the only benefits. I could teleport and disappear. The unfortunate part was that since I could hardly touch I couldn't help my brothers. This was something they had to do on their own.

* * *

Mikey was off in his own world collecting firewood when I had finally arrived at the forest. Out of all of us he was in the best shape. His muscles had kept in tack with all the work he had to do to survive in the jungle. Unlike Leo and Raph who were both skeletons and could hardly hold their shells.

Mikey's center was no longer the superhero world but now was a forest, much like the one he lived in at the time. His center was a burrow deep beneath the ground, but now instead of something being on top of it, it was a dark maze inside. I traveled through many paths while I was there but always ended up back in the forest. I guessed all he needed was Leo and Raph back. The more I traveled through the forest I saw a burnt section. It was hard to breath and walk there. It smelled like death.

Mikey did not see me when I was right in front of him. He didn't even feel my presence. But I could already feel myself weakening. The future versions of my brothers were right, I didn't have much time.

Surprisingly Mikey saw our brothers before I did, and dropped the wood on his toes as soon as he spotted them. He yelped in pain and hopped on one leg around in a circle.

"Mikey are you okay?" Leo asked.

"Somethings never change." Raph rolled his eyes.

Mikey scowled at them "What are you doing here? I said I wanted to live alone!"

Leo stepped forward "I'm sorry Mike, but we need your help, you see there's a bomb set to go off and..."

"Oh no, you're crazy if you think I'm going anywhere with you two. I'm sick of your fighting! It's loud and because of it we don't get anything done!"

"Mikey," Raph spoke up "We're over that, it's done."

"You mean you two made up?"

Leo and Raph nodded at the same time.

Mikey returned to his glare "Well it's too late, I've been living alone out here for way to long, and to think you guys can come and just apologize and think every things gonna be alright!"

"We're sorry Mikey, we were jerks and in no way brothers to you."

Mikey rolled his eyes "You bet you were."

"Look Mike, what do we have to do to get you to join back up with us?" Raph lost his temper.

"Raph." Leo snapped.

"Well let's see oh how about go back in time and stop yourselves from ever being born!" Mikey yelled.

"Mikey we didn't only come here because of the bomb, we came here because Don's back." Leo explained.

Mikey perked up "You mean he's alive?"

"Well I wouldn't say alive but..." Leo stopped when he saw me quietly standing in the shadows.

"He's right there!" he exclaimed pointing to me.

Mikey looked around frantically "Where? I don't see him!" he cried.

Leo gripped Mikey's shoulders and turned him directly toward me "Right there."

"Leo, you're pointing at a tree." Mikey sneered.

"You can't see him?" Leo asked concerned.

I stepped forward. "He has walls Leo, just like you did you have to break them." I explained

"But how?"

"Who are you talking to?" Mikey snapped.

"Mike how do you feel about Don's death?" Raph asked out of the blue.

"What kind of a stupid question is that?" Mikey snapped.

"One you need to answer." Raph snapped back.

"Raph I don't think those were the kind of walls Don was talking about." Leo tried to calm him.

"What walls! And when did you hear Don say that!" Mikey was completely confused.

Leo faced Mikey. "Mikey I'm sorry we weren't there for you, I'm sorry we made all that's happened to us so much harder for you. I'm sorry I never listened to you. I was so focused on the dead I forgot about the living. I guess that's how Raph and I coped with Don's death, by fighting, it gave us something to focus our anguish on. We never realized we were hurting you."

Mikey was shocked silent, then Leo pulled him into a hug. Mikey tried to make sense of all this, then sighed, "I just felt so alone." he whispered.

Raph joined the embrace "You're not anymore bro, we're here for you now."

Mikey hugged them back "I missed you guys."

A light in the middle of the maze shone and a bright pathway lead me into Mikey's center.

When Mikey opened his eyes he finally saw me standing quietly in the shadows. "Don!" he exclaimed.

Raph and Leo turned to me, and for the first time in eight years all of my brothers saw me. We were finally reunited.

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTE- **Guess it could have been longer... oh well review.


	20. Key

**AUTHOR'S NOTE- **Gee guys, you don't know how happy I am to be on this chapter. I never thought I could make it this far, but here we are. I really hope you've enjoyed the story so far, and are ready to have all your questions anwsered, lol. BTW I noticed on my comp that fan fiction didn't post chapter 19, well I hope this chapter clears that up, and I hope you guys didn't share that prob. Well enough of these boring author's notes on with the fic.

**DISCLAIMER- **I hope to not own any teenagers given my time in life now, especially not turtle teens.

* * *

The Foot building was in a frenzy. Eight hours, they had eight hours to pack everything up and get everyone out. And out was far away from the city limits.

Amongst the chaos Dr. Baxter Stockman worked as if none of that was happening. He was just tinkering with the last parts of the Shredder's new Exo-suit. By some miracle he had managed to finish it in three days. Of course he worked 72 hours straight without any breaks, and the actual creation wasn't nearly as good as the model.

_That's what happens when someone rushes genius, _he thought to himself as he looked over his creation.

The entire cooperation had been informed of the bomb twelve hours after it was set. Then the Shredder had announced that the weapons and materials would be transported away first and then the workers. Everyone left behind would be replaced. The Shredder was some team player.

Stockman hadn't paid much mind at all to the notice. In fact he wanted to stay and be burned alive, it bet his upcoming future. Work the rest of eternity for some ruthless dictator. He had given the desire to die with a fight and just wanted to get out of the Earth. It was a cold hard place for inventors anyway.

I found it funny how he wanted so badly what I had and how terribly I wanted what he had.

"Stockman! What's the progress?" Shredder stormed in and demanded.

"The suit is finished Master Shredder, all it needs is a test run." Stockman reported.

"No time for that, I want it shipped out of here immediately." he ordered only glancing at the crude machine.

It looked much nicer now then when I had seen it in the future. The metal was sleek and dark. The spikes pointing out of the shoulders and four arms looked sharp enough to pierce through steel. It's lasers were brand new and glowed.

Before he left the Shredder gave a small approving smile under his mask. He'd never tell Stockman, but he thought his new suit looked pretty intimidating.

* * *

Karai stared through the metal of the Karai bots one last time before they were shipped off to, she didn't really care where. She touched the sleek metal one last time.

_Chapmin._

She wouldn't let herself cry when the name came up. She didn't cry when her father sputtered the news, or did she cry when all of his stuff was burned to ashes. She didn't even feel sadness when she felt Stockman smirking behind her at the burning of the scientist stuff.

She felt nothing, she didn't even feel herself. She couldn't cry, it would make her look weak. And now she knew why her father discouraged love, strongly. It made one weak. At first it was this wonderful feeling that made you feel you had the ability to lift off the Earth and defy gravity. But once it was gone, gravity came back and crushed you on the ground, back into the Earth forever.

For Karai, it crushed her to death and her spirit, honor and everything she once believed in died with Chapmin. Now she was an empty shell being filled with lies and hatred.

She walked to the mirror and took off the towel she had wrapped around her head after a shower and revealed gleaming sliver hair. She dyed it herself. When she looked at her old self in the mirror all she could see was herself, lifeless and covered in blood. Now with sliver hair she saw a ruthless, loveless warrior who lived to kill.

Dreams, hope, love were all words that mean nothing know, there was only misery only the Shredder.

"Karai." her Master's voice echoed from behind her.

"Make sure Stockman gets my suit deported properly." he ordered.

"Yes Master." Karai responded and left to her task.

The Shredder was very pleased with himself, somehow by killing the boy he also killed his traitor daughter. Now she was mindlessly following orders, just like he always wanted her too. She would no longer do the enemy any favors, or stick up for any employees.

He smiled, killing Chapmin was defiantly paying off.

* * *

"Password? What do we need a password for?" Raph demanded.

"The bomb can only be stopped with a password." I replied.

"Can't you just rewire it or something?" Leo asked.

"No it needs the preset password."

"Well what is it?" Raph asked.

"I don't know, Chapmin set it, then Shredder killed him before I could find out."

"Dudes this is so strange." Mikey said out of the blue.

We were all standing on the nearby rooftop Raph once had used to spy on the Foot. We didn't really care about being spotted, everyone was preoccupied with packing up. My white mist was glowing in the dark.

"I mean I blink once and Don's there, then I blink again and he's gone. It's like we're talking to air." Mikey continued.

"Focus Mikey," Leo snapped at him then turned to me "Does anyone else know the password?"

"Stockman, Chapmin used to look up to him and tell him everything. I bet he mentioned what some passwords may be." I explained.

"Okay here's the plan.." Leo explained.

A couple of minutes later they were armed with explosives and heading to the science sector of the Foot building. Leo jumped ahead and landed on the roof. He gave a signal for Raph to come after.

"Set them off." Leo ordered

Raph did as told and they both ran after they set the match. They had just ducked behind a nearby air duct when the explosives blew up and blew the roof off part of the building A fire spurred across the halls. Startled Foot ninja ran around like a disrupted ant colony. Some to the Shredder others to the weapons they had just packed. smoke filled the room quickly and sirens wailed through the building.

During the chaos my brothers slipped in the building and headed down the hallway.

* * *

The ninja loaded the last of the suit into it's carrier and turned around.

"Stockman you go out next," he smiled "With the dangerous chemical substances."

Stockman didn't even bother talking back, he lost his cockiness along with his pride. He was done and now suffering.

Karai watched him from the door entrance through narrow eyes. Part of her, a part of her old self wanted to slice him in half. It drove her crazy that this murder was still on this Earth despite what he did to Stockman. Earlier on she witnessed the electrical torture for him, which she once found cruel with a smile. His screams provided him with all the vengeance she needed.

Leo spotted Karai just as he turned the corner, he quickly rounded it before she could glance at him. He stopped our brothers and signaled silence. Then three heads poked out to study the door guardian.

"What's Karai doing here?" he whispered.

"Oh I don't know, working for her dad!" Raph whispered.

"Dudes how are we gonna get by her?" Mikey asked.

"Let me handle this." Leo said getting up.

Raph yanked him down, "Leo this isn't the time for a therapy session." he hissed.

"Raph's right," I warned."She's changed since you last talked to her Leo."

Leo looked to the sky "I have to try, even if she did change the old Karai has to be in there somewhere, and she'd never let this happen to innocent people." he said then ran off before anyone could say anything else.

Karai took out her blade and stared at her reflection.

"Karai do you have any idea what's going on?" She scowled at the voice behind her.

"In a few hours millions of people are going to get killed Karai." Leo warned.

She turned to face him. Death was in her eyes, but Leo hardly had the time to rad it. Without her usual grace she lunged at Leo full force. Leo barely had time to get out his katanas and block the attack. He was pushed back a little bit.

"Karai what are you doing?" he demanded.

Karai didn't listen and swung her blade at his left side. He brought his sword to block it. She kicked him in the side the next instant. He stumbled a bit before grabbing her wrist, which she twisted in her grip and flipped him to the floor. She brought a blade down to him, which he rolled out of the way for and heard the whisp of the strike.

He jumped up on his two legs. Karai swung her blade from the ground to him as hard as she could, but this time he was ready. He clasped the sword with his katanas two inches from his face then pulled the blade out of her grip onto the floor. Before she could react Leo pushed her to the wall and held her in place.

"What's wrong with you? You used to fight for innocent people." he hissed.

"Times have changed Leonardo." she replied.

Then using the wall as support, she flipped from his grip and over him. She grabbed the katanas out of his hands in midair. As soon as she landed she sliced him twice in the chest.

That did it for Raph and Mikey "Leo!" they cried running to his aid.

Leo stumbled a bit and clung to his bleeding chest.

"Stay back! I can handle this." he ordered.

"No way bro." Raph growled and stepped forward.

"That was an order!" he yelled.

Raph grimaced and stopped.

"Foolish Leonardo, foolish." Karai snapped taking another swipe at him.

He forgot his chest and dodged. I wasn't really worried for him, he knew his weapons better then anything else, there was no way Karai could ever harm him.

He dodged each of her attacks flawlessly.

"Karai calm down I don't want to hurt you." he tried.

With a cry of rage she attcked harder and more powerfully. But she was off focus, she was fighting like her father out of anger not honor. This made her clumsy and sloppy. Leo finally caught one of her wrist with one hand. She brought the other one to him, but he caught it two.

"What changed Karai, what happened to you?" Leo pulled her to his face and asked her.

Karai didn't see Leo though, who she saw was Chapmin, the one who offered escape and love offering again.

"NO!" She screamed and broke out of Leo's grip.

She then thrusted both weapons into his chest. He screamed in pain. She rammed him into the wall and slid the swords deeper into his chest. He looked up at ner. She was crying, tears were coming down her face. She looked broken. She was heaving hard.

"NO LOVE! NO ESCAPE!" She screamed.

Then was about to lift her sword out and finish him off when she gasped. Leo who had closed his eyes opened them ti find Karai staring at him with a ballstic expression, absolutely frozen. Se let go off the katanas and fell to the floor.

Leo blinked and saw a sai through her head She panted very loudly then it starte to die down until she lay still. Her eyes open, with that ballistic expression, tears dripped off her face.

Leo was breathing hard trying to make sense of reality and catch his breath.

He turned his head to see Raph, with just as shocked a face as him drop his remaining sai. Mikey ran over to Leo.

"Leo! Leo! Speak to me bro! Are you okay?" he asked frantically.

"Raph." Leo panted.

Raph broke down "Leo I don't know what came over me she was hurting you and I didn't know what else to do.." he spoke rapidly.

"Raph, it was what she needed." My voice calmed him down.

"Can you walk?" Mikey asked worriedly.

Leo tried to get up but fell in pursuit . Mikey and Raph helped him make his way to the entrance of Stockman's lab.

"Wait here bro, this will only take a second." Mikey said.

Leo didn't have any strength to argue and left it at that. Mikey and Raph charged in.

They were a little surprised to see Stockman's brain tube left completely vulnerable in an empty room.

"Too late turtles," he mumbled "Shredder's already gone." he mumbled.

"We aren't here about the Shredder." Raph growled.

"We want the password for the bomb...now!" Mikey demanded.

"And how do you know I know it? Chapmin set it off." Stockman inquired.

"We know you knew him better than anyone else, so talk what would he use as a password?" Raph demanded.

"I have one in mind he might use but in order for me to tell you, you must do me a favor first."

"We got no time to bargain Stockman." Raph growled.

"Then you must not have time for the password." Stockman replied simply.

"What do you want?" Mikey asked.

"I want you to end my life." Stockman said simply.

Raph and Mikey were both taken back. "Wh-what?" they asked in unison.

"You heard me, I will tell you the password if you swear on your ninja's honor you will kill me afterwords." he said.

Raph and Mikey looked at each other uneasily.

"Do it." I said "You don't know how much good you will be doing."

Raph sighed and turned to Stockman "Deal." he said.

"What's the password?" Mikey asked.

"Have you tried Karai?" Stockman asked.

Mikey nodded.

"Go outside with Leo Mike, this won't be long." Raph ordered gripping his sais.

* * *

The Shredder sneered at the video footage of my brothers running out of Stockman's lab.

"Get my suit ready." he ordered.

There was no way he would let them ruin his plans again.

* * *

It was about two am, when my brothers finally got back to the lair and got Leo patched up. Two more hours to go before Ka boom.

Leo had lost his senses when Mikey left Stockman's lab. He and Raph had to carry him home. They had given him a dirty bandage around his chest and had wrapped him in blankets in the infirmary. This was the first time since I died that Leo had slept somewhere besides the chair.

I couldn't go and wake Leo up. I didn't have the energy. The world around me was starting to spin. And one my brothers saw me, I was fading right before their eyes. Fading into nothing. I decided not to tell them that part. I was still debating on whether or not to tell them about their future versions. I hardly told them anything about the inbetween, I was trying to save my strength for the mission. But every minute Leo was wasting unconscious I was fading vanishing more and more.

Both Raph and Mikey suggested that we do this thing without Leo. But I convinced them out of it. With already two family members gone they needed all the hep they could get.

"So whatever happened to your body?" Mikey was asking me a million questions that were staring to blur together.

My entire being was in pain, and I was so weak. It would have been so easy to just stop there and rest, to not care about what would happen next or where or if I would ever wake up. But I couldn't, not until my family was safe.

"Don are you okay?" Raph asked.

I wasn't going to lie to him, I learned my lesson "I'm weak Raph, being here takes out a lot of energy."

"What does that mean?" Mikey asked concerned.

"Means I'm not gonna be here for much longer." I said weakly.

"Where will you go?" He asked.

"Back to the inbetween?" Raph guessed.

"I don't know." I whispered.

Raph and Mikey shared uneasy glances.

Leo walked out of the infirmary, but his pride was stolen.

"Guess you know about the dream, don't you Don?" he asked.

I smiled "Yeah."

"What were you going to say?" he asked "Right before I wake up, what were you going to say?"

I paused for a moment then responded "I'm sorry."

Leo nodded, then remembered "I'm sorry for what I did to your lab, to your memory."

"You can make it up to me by giving all the remaining stuff to Leatherhead." I said.

Leo hesitated, then agreed "Sure, if it's what you want Don."

"What about the bomb goin off in two in hours?" Raph asked.

"You up to it Leo?" Mikey asked, but knew the answer.

"Defiantly."

"The Shredder saw you guys, he's on his way to protect the bomb right now." I warned.

"Let's get moving." Leo ordered.

I knew my time was coming. If I was going to say goodbye it was now or never. They headed to the entrance.

"Guys wait," I called after them. They stopped to face me, I gulped "In the past I haven' been completely honest with you, but now I am, I can never have a family better than you three, no matter what you become it'll never change my opinion of you guys, you are strong and passionate as individuals but you are an incredible unstoppable force as a team."

They all smiled a little.

I stuck my hand out, "Promise me, that no matter what happens no matter what good or bad times you go through, that you will always be that unstoppable force as a team, that you'll always be brothers and you won't take advantage of anything you have. Promise me not to grieve the dead but honor them, in everything you do in every fight you fight, remember who you were and who you are."

Leo came forward and put his hand on top of my own, Raph did the same and Mikey followed. We all looked around and smiled.

Then at the top of our lungs, and with all my remaining energy we screamed "TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES!"

We threw our hands up in the air and I disappeared.

* * *

What I felt next was burning pain throughout my body. I felt as if I was being burned alive. I screamed in pain but I couldn't hear myself. I heard the Shredder behind me laughing manically. At first I thought I was in hell, but I was the only one here beside the Shredder.

I felt every little painful detail about life right then. Pain, fear, shame, guilt, depression. It was as if all the world's pan was now showering over me. Weakness wasn't an issue anymore, my senses were more in tone then ever. Running with knives in lodged into me felt better.

I barely felt tears of sheers pain slipping down my face, but I didn't regret doing what I did one bit.

"You're spirit's draining Donatello prepare to become nothing."

At that moment I was ready to do anything to end the pain.

Then suddenly the Shredder screamed a shout of angst himself and I was in twice the pain. I could almost see myself hang on to my soul as if were a cliff and the Shredder was dangling on my feet, making it twice as hard to hold myself up. I kicked and kicked but he wouldn't let go.

I used every bit of strength Master Splinter taught me plus everything that happened to me after January 16th and used it to hang on.

The Shredder's hand on my foot started to fall. Only a few more seconds, he let go and screamed all the way down. I felt the bottom of the cliff dragging me as well. screamed and closed my eyes. I clung to the cliff as hard as I could.

One moment I was against the force of the universe the next nothing. I stopped screaming when the pulling stopped. I clutched whatever was in my hand harder. I dared to crack my eyes open.

I was hanging onto the bars of my cage. My dead heart was rapidly beating as I scanned the surrounding. I was back in the inbetween. Not only that but the future versions of my brothers were there, smiling.

I stared at them with a terrified and confused expression.

"Congratulations Donnie, you performed the impossible." Future Leo was smiling widely, looked strange in him.

"Wha-what?" was all I could say.

"Look down on Earth." Raph said.

My brothers were on top of the State building, cheering. The bomb wasn't ticking and the Shredder's suit was far beneath them, squashed into the concrete.

I was still madly shaking "Th-they did, they saved the future." I recognized.

"All of you did, together." Mikey said.

"But how am I still here? You said I would turn into nothing." I asked.

"You would have, not been for us we stopped that Shredder before he even existed." Leo explained.

I was still breathing hard when I felt something in my hand. I looked to see it was a key!

"To the lock without a key." Leo explained.

"But..." I started.

"You've always had it," Mikey said "You could have always left if you accept your fate. All the Shredder did was give you a choice, you were the one who kept yourself here."

I gulped "So I can leave whenever I want."

Raph nodded "But once you leave, you go up or down like everyone else and there's no turning back, and no looking at Earth after that either."

I looked at the key and the back to my brothers, they were disappearing "Where are you going?" I asked.

"We never existed Don, just like the Shredder we were part of the future." Leo tried to explain.

"I don't get it!" I called to them.

"No one does." Leo smiled.

"Thank you Donatello." they said in unison then for the last time disappeared.

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTE- **...What? You were expecting a huge battle between Shredder and the turtles? Pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeee that would be soo predictable. Okay there is a reason for not having the big fight scene, and no it was not because I got lazy, at least not most of it. I wanted to focus more on the theme aspect of the story more then the plot, and this whole story was in Don's POV. And well guys, this is it, the end. And before you start pleating me with questions, there is one more chapter, epilogue that will tie up all lose ends. One that will be posted in a few hours.


	21. Epilogue

**AUTHOR'S NOTE- **Well guys we've fin ally reached the end. The last chapter is right below if yoiu want to skip ahead. I am really glad that for once I can put completed a the progress of my story. Especially one this long. This is the first story I have ever completed, just to put emphasis on, and hopefully not the last. So enjoy the ending.

**DISCLAIMER- **Well if you didn't get it these last 20 times then I'll say it again, I do not own Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

* * *

Even after I achieved the key from the inbetween, I still stayed in my cell. Though it wasn't like before, I wasn't totally alone anymore.

I'll never forget the first time I was seen in the inbetween. I had spotted Dr. Stockman's soul as the little boy he once was float upwards into his mother's arm. As a boy he was innocent, he looked like all that suffering had never happened, and that death or being united was the best thing ever. When he passed me he smiled and waved. At first I thought I was imagining it, or e was waving to something else. He kept waving, finally I slowly started to wave back. Then Stockman entered internal happiness. His mother's screams of anguish were replaced with playful laughter and tears of joy. That night I couldn't stop smiling.

I watched Earth for two more years. During that time I had always kept an eye on the boy in war and his mother.

One autumn day the mother was picking up the mail outside their apartment when a military car pulled up the street. She froze and stared at the car with big wide eyes as a proud and strong captain regally stepped out of the vehicle.

The last time she saw this captain, he had said 'goodbye mom'. The boy dropped his suitcases and ran to hold his mother. They were both laughing and crying at the same time.

There are no happy endings in life, but that doesn't mean life doesn't have ups or downs. Or that life has terrible endings either. The truth of the matter is that life has no endings. Even after you have your last breath, there is no ending.

After about four years in solitude, Casey had finally returned to New York City. By then April had long given up the search and had her store back on track. Of course she wasn't to pleased to see her husband at the door after four years.

He had walked up the front door steps and knocked on the door with a pitiful face. April only glanced and gasped before she yelled.

"Get out of here Casey Jones!"

Of course Casey refused to leave and since she wouldn't talk o him he had just sat down on the steps and waited for her t be let in. He sat there for almost a week. Many times April had tried calling the cops, but every time she put her finger on the dial something stopped her. Love maybe?

On the seventh day April finally opened the door to snap at him "Get in before you scare all my customers."

He did so gladly. And that night they were remarried, that morning April was pregnant. And nine months later a little girl was born. Casey had never seen anything so beautiful. April had ending up having her at night in the middle of the store.

My brothers were there during labor and Casey was squeezing her hand. I was there too, concealed in the shadows.

The cries of the baby were the only cries I ever heard that made me happy, truly happy. I also had to agree with Casey, his little girl was quite a sight to see.

When Casey was holding his baby for the first time April viewed the surrounding and looked directly at me. I disappeared when she did, but she still caught a glance of me.

"So what are we gonna name her?" Casey asked.

April smiled "Shadow."

* * *

On Leo's 30th birthday, he performed the last thing he had promised sensi. He and my other brother's became ninja masters.

Sensai had been preparing for this day ever since we could walk. He had a storage box that held four fine robes, one for each master. It was suppost to be this big ceremony, with all of our friends there. It was the biggest honor we'd ever receive.

Well it didn't exactly work out like that. It went more like Leo standing on a chair with his glincing robe on lecturing Mikey and Raph who were sitting on the floor.

"Today we for fill a task we have been destined for since birth, and even though this ceremony isn't as magnificent as it was suppost to be, it still doesn't underlie the purpose. That guys brothers we made it, we're masters now. We have been through the toughest bit of life and we're still hear. And to all who've we lost, well I bet they're still watching, and I bet they're proud."

He was right, I was never more proud in my entire life. He called up Raph and Mikey to put on their robes and make it official. He sighed at the last remaining robe.

"It's yours Donatello, I promise to keep it that way." he whispered.

This was the last time I was on Earth. I watched in the shadows as Leo helped Mikey into his robe and then Raph. Raph gave him a respectful smile. Then both of them bowed before Leo. I appeared next to them, also bowing.

Leo smiled determinedly, ad couldn't help but think of Master Splinter.

Raph and Mikey glanced to their side and saw me for the final time. I winked and then disappeared.

* * *

Right now I am at the lock of the inbetween, twiddling the key through my fingers. It's time for me to leave the inbetween. Something told me at that ceremony that I had t go.

And even though I don't mean to I still have an effect on Earth that still prevents my brothers from completely moving on. It was really what future Raph, Leo and Mikey tried to explain, it's impossible for my family to move on before I do.

I am not going to lie, I'm scared, terrified to be more accurate. After I unlock this door it's up or down and no turning back. I don't even have the faintest clue of what will happen. That's what fear derives from, not knowing.

But I have to do this, it was destined to be this way, I'm still imprisoned and I can't be afraid to set myself free.

I jam the key into the lock.

I whisper one last goodbye to my brothers, who I might or may not ever see again.

I turn the key until I hear a click. The door swings open and the force invites me in the jump. I will finally join those spirits, only for a moment.

I take one step out of the cage.

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTE**- The end... no really, thats it. This is probably proof of how mean I am, ending in a cliffhanger. Ha Ha , no that wasn't the point. I decided to let the reader decide were Don goes. Do you think he deserves Hell, or Heaven. It doesn't matter to me and my opinion doesn't matter, that wasn't the point of the story. So pretend all you want. And if you have any questions, comments insults please review. As a side note I finished before the terrible day! Yahh! So guys thank you for reviewing and reading my crap, this has been a blast to write, and I hope you will look out for my future stories.

_Mensis Eclipse_


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